Dubbo agents for the sale of Thursday, January 23 drew for 3325 head of cattle.

The good judges expected these numbers after a much-reduced offering of 1200 cattle the previous week and the fact that the much-louted rain event in many cases came and went without so much as a whimper.

Some properties saw nice rain.

Others had damaging thunderstorms which demolished kilometres of fencing and tore the heart out of cultivation and impacted landscapes.

While a huge percentage of farms did not receive enough rain to top up household supplies.

Dubbo saleyards is about to lose one of the centres top livestock, property and all-round auctioneers when Angus Barlow moves from the centre to take a managerial position with Elders at Wagga Wagga.

Over the best part of three decades the writer has enjoyed a close and rewarding relationship with Angus and I probably more than most will miss his presence and assistance.

A man blessed with great all-round auctioneering skills.

For many years Angus has, in my opinion, been in the top echelon of his profession.

ALSO MAKING NEWS:

Highly educated and articulate, he has to my knowledge always conducted himself in a most professional manner, sadly our loss will be the southern centres gain.

From a magazine statistic analyst: - during the financial year 2018/2019 Australia produced 2.35 million tonnes carcase weight (CWT) of beef veal.

Feedlots processed 3.14 million cattle or 38 per cent of cattle slaughtered.

My man in the processing side of our industry suggest Australia appears destined in the foreseeable future to have 2 million cattle on feed at any given time as demand from overseas continues to rise.

We export 70 plus percent of our beef production to more than 70 countries worldwide.

With regards to sheep and lambs in that financial year 730 tonnes were processed with 66 per cent of lamb production exported and 96 per cent of mutton despatched overseas.

Very interesting stats but the high percentage exported to countries in foreign lands emphasises the necessity to maintain at a cost the clean green image that we have across the world.

The damage to our bottom line would be a disaster if ever we allow foot and mouth, south African swine fever, or a host of other diseases gain a foot hold here.