Mr Dumesny, 71, sold his cows and closed his dairy in April last year just before major south-west dairy processors slashed their milk prices.

He was both a dairy and beef producer before April, last year but decided to focus only on beef to ease his workload.

That decision has continued to pay dividends for him with beef prices continuing their high trajectory.

Mr Dumesny was pleased with the 355c/kilogram he received for 20 16-month-old Angus steers with an average weight of 431 kilograms at last Friday’s Warrnambool store cattle sale.

He said the demand for cattle on Friday had been “very strong.” 

Mr Dumesny runs about 850 Angus breeders on Rosverland Farms at Tarrone.

While beef prices remain buoyant, Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) this week said indicative retail beef prices during the first quarter of 2017 eased for the first time since 2013.

The MLA said cattle prices declined over the same period but remained historically high.

It also said the unprecedented export demand of recent years, which had diverted beef from the domestic market, had also eased.

The MLA said beef production in the United States had recovered from a cyclical trough and there was greater competition across a range of key export markets.

This occurred against a background of a decline in the number of Australian cattle slaughter over the past two years to a two decade low.

As a result, after bottoming out mid-2016, domestic beef utilisation, a measure of production less exports, increased up to the end of March this year, the MLA said.

It said the domestic market accounted for 30 per cent of production in the 12 months ending March, above the 25 per cent recorded in 2015 and in line with the five-year average.

The MLA said Australian beef production was expected to begin increasing in the latter half of 2017 and continue rising over the next few years, with the increase providing further support for the domestic market.