It’s far from raining profits...

AS RON Frame yarns with his mates at the Tuesday Sale, the concern on their faces is obvious.

Sellers were out in force trying to offload cattle as the drought takes effect. Picture: Adam Hourigan

AS RON Frame yarns with his mates at the Tuesday Sale, the concern on their faces is obvious.

Cattle prices were low again, and the fast-approaching winter prompted a large yarding of 982 head at the Grafton prime cattle sale yesterday.

Mr Frame owns a 485ha property at Copmanhurst, and though his paddocks are faring better than others in the region, he was still feeling the pressure of the dry times. "We sold a few three-year-old steers today," he said.

"We would normally sell those steers at a store sale, but there's a lack of interest from store buyers because of the weather."

Though the short-term forecast looks promising, farmers at the saleyards yesterday said they weren't about to get their hopes up.

"You can't do anything to change the weather... they've been saying we'll get rain for a long time now and we haven't had much at all," Mr Frame said.

"It just means you have to tighten your belt a bit with the way you manage your properties.

"General rain over the eastern part of the country would help to stop the flow of cattle through the markets and that should make the prices go up."

Mr Frame runs about 90 breeders and 140 head of young cattle.

"We need to lighten off numbers - our growing season is almost over and if we don't get good rain in the next few weeks we're going to be very short on winter feed," Mr Frame explained.

"We're worried about how tough this winter will be if we don't get rain."

Originally published as It’s far from raining profits...