THE strong prices crossbred cattle from Glen and Meredith Miller's Glen Elton at Crooble have made in the past two years have more than paid back the investment made on gear to feed stock through the drought.
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With cropping their main game and cattle run on secondary country, the Millers had the grain and hay to feed but faced big infrastructure costs to make it happen.
They did their sums counting on a post-drought market level that has now far been exceeded.
Indeed, they considered the prices they made at last year's April Inverell Weaner Sale to be a 'once in a lifetime' occurrence.
This year, at yesterday's sale, their cattle averaged $250 a head more and their top pen was up $540.
The Millers sold 111 steers with pens of Angus, Poll Hereford, Charolais and black baldies for between 570 cents a kilogram and 800c. The lighter the cattle, the more money they made and their top pen were light weight Angus steers.
They also sold 89 heifers across the same breeds, with a pen of Charolais-cross topping at 568c/kg or $1841 a head.
While they were extremely happy with the result, Mr Miller said he feels the cattle market is now unsustainable.
"Australia now has the dearest cattle in world and that frightens me," he said.
"As they say, the best cure for high prices is high prices - what that means is people will be burned. Breeders might be protected a bit but we're all in the beef industry."
Across four properties, the Millers run a herd of Poll Hereford breeders, which are joined to Hereford bulls; Angus cows joined to Angus bulls and a crossbred herd joined to Charolais bulls.
Some heifers from all breeds are joined to Angus bulls for replacements in the crossbred herd.
The breeding aim is marketing flexibility.
"There have been times I get the best money for Charolais because bullock fatteners are chasing them but at the moment restockers are paying a premium for black," Mr Miller said.
"Buyers of our cattle are diverse, but there are many repeat buyers which we consider to be the biggest success."
The top season has meant Glen Elton cattle on average weighed 50kg more at the same age this year than what would be typical.