About 680 2-year-old bulls will be offered by public auction in Otago and Southland over the next six weeks.
There were some very good genetics spread through both regions and values were expected to be on a par with and, in some cases, up on last year, after a very sound weaner-selling season, PGG Wrightson Otago stud stock specialist Roger Keach said.
A new addition to the sale calendar is the Stoneburn Herefords and Waimara Angus sale, which will be held at Andy Denham's Stoneburn farm on Friday at 1pm.
Stoneburn Herefords will offer 15 rising 2-year-old bulls and Waimara Angus will offer 13 bulls.
The Stoneburn Hereford stud was established in 1991 with an initial purchase of 20 cows.
Since then, Mr Denham has made further purchases.
He now has 150 stud cows, including in-calf heifers, along with 4700 ewes and 1200 hoggets on the 1450ha property, 20km west of Palmerston.
Originally, the stud was formed as a hobby, breeding bulls for a commercial herd and selling the occasional bull privately, but Mr Denham said he had since got more serious about the stud operation.
He aimed to breed moderately framed, sound cattle, with good bone, clean shoulders and plenty of meat.
They were "good doing cattle" for hill country properties, he said.
Waimara Angus is a family stud, founded by Tom and Sally Law at Te Anau in 1988 and now shared with their three children and their partners.
It is now based at Tumai, Waikouaiti, a 560ha coastal property.
Artificial insemination was introduced at the beginning and has been used extensively over the past 24 years.
Selection criteria were to first retain functional, fertile cows, then use technology such as scanning and estimated breeding values.
The aim was to have cows that met breed average in all the important traits.
Numbers have grown to 120 cows and calves this year.