Quite often they are drawn in huge numbers from New England and other parts of the north and east.

Having said that, the really big supporters come from Western NSW, way into central South Australia and even as far as the Northern Territory. Dubbo, with a draw of 5850 head for December 8, could in reality have 800 to 2000 head drawn from a long way out .

One line of 500 mixed sex weaner from South Australia, while they did eventually arrive in time for the sale, were somewhat way-laid by heavy rain in their area.

Vendors should remember sales go through until December 19 – that day is sheep and lambs. The last prime cattle sale is on December 15 with an attractive offering of store cattle on December 16.

Andrew Meat Industries at Lidcombe, in Sydney, has long been regarded as one of the best, if not the best, beef-cutting house in the country.

With its partner JBS Australia it recently completed a $20 million state-of-the-art sous-vide kitchen. With advanced technology, this commercial kitchen is capable of producing 600,000 meals (or 200 tonnes of cooked product) in a week.

Wesley Batista, principal of JBS International, says this new cooking process is part of a world-wide trend to value add to its product and to appease a growing demand from consumers for quality, easy and quick meals to prepare in today's busy society.

Since the two partnered, the combination has grown in exports by 116 per cent and increased staff numbers by 15 per cent. According to a recent radio interview, the company will look at opening similar operations in Melbourne and Brisbane. JBS supplies much of the beef, lamb and pork required.

Surprisingly, we learn India is the world’s largest exporter of bovine beef (beef and buffalo) in the latest Meat and Livestock Australia  statistics. In 2015 Australia held the number one position but India is now in the lead by volume for the first nine months of 2016.

Vietnam is the primary destination for Indian products with an increase of 31 per cent for January to September to a total of 400,000 tonnes.

Much of this is buffalo meat which retails at considerably less than beef from other countries e.g. boneless frozen buffalo exported to India in September retailed at A$3-91 cents. Brazil beef was at A$5–17c, US beef  A$7-13c and our own beef on average sold for A$6-05c.

Buffalo also lends itself to the Asian cooking styles.

Indonesia for this reason took 9,864 tonnes in August/September and issued more import permits for extra supplies for its domestic market.