Kicking-off in the first week of January at Wodonga, buyers are expecting quality cattle in top condition off the back of another good season.

Long-time vendor John Mitchell, Towong Hill Station, Corryong, Victoria, said his cattle should present well.

With his father having introduced Angus cattle in 1952, Mr Mitchell’s herd has a long history.

Now he runs a self-replacing herd, consisting of about 400 cows and their replacements on the edge of the Snowy Mountains.

Originally based on Hazeldean blood, Mr Mitchell has been using Lawsons bulls since 1984.

Mr Mitchell said he purchased bulls with low birthweight for ease of calving, and extra length and a substantial frame as it meant the calves would be able to put on extra meat.

Having sold his weaner steers and surplus heifers at the Wodonga calf sales for more than 10 years, Mr Mitchell was looking forward to the 2012 round of sales.

While he was selling about 200 weaners at Wodonga in January, only about 50 of them would be heifers because he was building up breeding numbers post-drought.

With calving starting in March and continuing for about nine weeks, the weaners were between nine and 10 months old when they were sold, and usually averaged about 310 kilograms.

All of the calves were weaned prior to being sold at the weaner sales and were run on natural pasture with no supplementary feeding.

Like Mr Mitchell, Elders Albury livestock manager Matt Tinkler said he was expecting a positive outcome at the 2012 weaner sales.

“There will be plenty of local interest and buyers from the north are expected to be out in force again, due to how well the seasons have gone,” Mr Tinkler said.

While Mr Tinkler said forecasting prices was difficult, the market for young cattle had been good at all of the store sales leading up to January.

With weaners making between 220 and 240 cents a kilogram at the sales early this year,