WITH winter fast approaching in the Maranoa region, graziers like Robert Bain are looking for a hopeful shower to keep the market going for 2016.

With his 73 Angus-cross steers returning for $1086/head at Roma’s Store Sale on Tuesday, Mr Bain said there was a dire need for good rainfall and follow-up over winter, with dry conditions previously responsible for a drop in store numbers.

“The market is back a bit from previous weeks, but it seems to be holding alright,” he said

“Dry conditions likely affected the numbers; there’s plenty of dry feed around to alleviate it as well, but it’s hard to say what the root cause is.”

Having sold Angus steers since 1991, Mr Bain said the cattle breed was very reliable for all sorts of market conditions that came along.

“These types of cattle are very reliable for the market,” he said.

Despite experiencing little rain over the past few months, he remains confident that consistent rainfall over Winter would be enough to keep the market stable.

“To put it simply, we could certainly do with some rain,” Mr Bain said.

International climate models suggest the region could return to La Nina weather by the end of the month, attributed to changing temperatures in the Pacific Ocean and upper atmosphere.

The Bureau of Meteorology previously predicted a 50% chance of La Nina conditions back in April, despite the organisation predicting a wet month earlier this year.

At the Roma Saleyards, numbers returned to normal with 7100 head of cattle at Tuesday’s sale.