And that relief was expressed succinctly by Elders state livestock manager for Victoria and the Riverina, Matt Tinkler, when he said the "significant rain in the north has been a godsend for the sales".

"Certainly, I guess back in October and November we were looking at the sales being fairly tough when forecasting where this was going to be," he said.

"We all knew the cattle were going to present very well, people consistently breed for these sales and the presentation and quality was outstanding."

Mr Tinkler said the northern rains underpinned the sale and the buying interest representing those producers took home the bulk of the offerings.

"I'm not sure of the percentages but if we didn't sell nearly eighty per cent of the cattle over the four days to the north, we must be very close," he said.

"Weaning was again prominent in the whole equation, weaned calves were well sought after, there was good competition and a good start to the year."

Elders Wodonga manager Brett Shea was "really happy" after the second day of Angus breed sales.

"A feature of the day was probably a great run of grown steers where we saw cattle on either side of 500kg making up to 320c/kg," Mr Shea said.

"Back inside on our black calves, the heavy end of them made 300c/kg to 310c/kg.

"We had fantastic support from the north which we all hoped was going to come on the back of the rain but we still had enough local inquiry to keep the job up."

Peter Ruaro Livestock Rodwells auctioneer Scott Campbell, Wodonga, said the first sale of the "coloured breeds" opened on par with the previous two days of Angus sales.

"Year-in, year-out, you have a different set of buyers for this 'coloured' sale to the black sales, and I thought the cattle sold pretty well," Mr Campbell said.

Paull and Scollard Nutrien auctioneer Tim Robinson, Wodonga, said the sale last Friday "certainly met the [vendors] expectations".

"It is a different market to that of the Angus cattle but the cattle of those different breeds are a credit to their bloodlines and also the producers who are committed to the Herefords, black baldies, Shorthorns and European breeds," he said.

"We were just so blessed there was that rain in the north and are very thankful those buyers were able to support our sales and we hope they have great success."