FOR the first time in close to eight years buyers at the Roma store sale on Tuesday were treated to a line of Santa steers from Tambo's Sargood family of Drensmaine.
The family, known for selling stud bulls at the Barcoo Santa Breeders Bull Sale, traditionally offloaded their commercial cattle to the saleyards but began selling to buyers privately or to the meatworks direct.
Following a dismal season last year, their 8900 hectare operation now needs to recover and they have looked to offload quicker.
They offered 166 of their medium number seven steers at the saleyards which averaged 301.6c/kg at 365.5kg to return 1102/hd.
While they received 63mm at their house in the 2018 wet change, vendor Matt Sargood said that fall hadn't reached all of the property.
"We usually fatten them out ourselves but we had a bit of a rough year so we are holding off grass for the breeders and see how they hopefully get through a bit better," he said.
"It looks really good right now (the season) and obviously there are always people that are worse off. A bit more (rain) now would be great.
"The cattle actually look really good considering they had a bit of a rough time."
The family will look to offload more of their cattle including heifers if needed.
"We are sort of taking it in stages, see how the paddocks come up (and) they are still growing obviously," Mr Sargood said.
"We like to stick to the program that we have always gone with but...these are a real nice line of steers I'm sure they will perform for whoever buys them. They have got a lot of growth...give them a bit of a chance I think they will really go well.