"I said, ‘no, we’ll wait and see’ and I’m glad I did."
A pen of his Simmental and South Devon cross 2-year-old heifers sold for $2280 each, or $4.88 per kg, the top price paid for heifers.
Seven of his Simmental 2-year-old steers sold for $2370 each.
The sale of those steers equated to $5.25 per kg, the second-highest price per kilogram fetched for a lot of 2-year-old steers.
Mr Lozell bred those steers and heifers on his 340ha sheep and beef farm in Mount Trotter, near Palmerston.
He also sold 14 Saler 2-year-old heifers for $1610 each, or $4.07 per kg, having bought them as yearlings for $875 at the same sale last year.
"They were reasonably cheap at the time and I thought ‘there’s some money to be made in those’, so that’s what we did."
Earlier this year, he sold a pen of 34 freshly weaned Simmental steer calves for $1590 a head, the highest final bid at the sale.
His heifer calves fetched $1385 each at the same sale.
At the same calf sale a year earlier, his steers fetched about $1000 each and heifers about $875 each.
He was happy to take the higher prices while they were on offer.
"You’ve got to take the money while it’s there because it could soon fall over.
"Next year it might be back to $800 or $1000, you never know."
They brought three truck-and-trailer loads of breeding cattle with them, most straight Simmental.
Since moving south, genetics introduced to his herd include bulls from Beresford Simmental Stud in Catlins.
Mrs Lozell runs a flock of about 50 Gotland breeding ewes, a black-headed breed with grey fleece, established on the Swedish Island of Gotland, and spins and sells the wool.
After moving to East Otago, the couple had introduced about 400 cashmere goats to their operation, breeding them to supply their fibre to Wellington company Woolyarns New Zealand, but they got rid of them after three seasons.
Challenges included only being able to get them slaughtered at a certain time of year as the processing chain had to be cleaned and their revenue was less than expected.
They then bought some in-lamb Perendale ewes to fatten the resulting lambs to send to the works.
About two years ago, the Lozells planted about 100ha of their steep, unproductive gullies in eucalyptus trees.
The trees provide shelter for the livestock, prevent landslips and are in the Emissions Trading Scheme.
Entering the trees in the scheme was pretty easy, he said.
Mr Lozell said his family only lamented one thing about moving to East Otago to work and live.
"The only one regret is probably we should have been here 10 years earlier. It’s great."
• Strong demand continued at the Balclutha 2nd Spring Cattle Sale last week.
Highlights included a dozen Hereford and Friesian cross steers selling for $2720 each, 19 Angus steers selling for $2450 each and 29 Angus heifers selling for $2200 each.
