Weekly cattle and sheep market wrap
09 August 2024
Key points:
- Roma had its largest throughput since April 2019, contributing significantly to Queensland’s yardings.
- The sheep market had mixed results, with new season lamb prices dropping despite increased yardings.
- Slaughter numbers returned to regular levels, with cattle slaughter slightly increasing and lamb slaughter lifting by 5%.
Cattle market
The cattle market eased this week, with drops across all indicators, except for the National Dairy Indicator and the Restocker Yearling Heifer Indicator. Total cattle yardings lifted 7%, or 4,549 head to 66,564.
Roma yarded 11,189 head this week, their largest throughput since April 2019, lifting Queensland yardings to 29,093 head. The restocker market was driven by Roma, with 40% of the week’s total yearling steer throughput, as well as 18% of the heifer throughput. Despite this, both categories fell below the national indicator, keeping the national indicators relatively flat. The National Restocker Yearling Steer Indicator eased 2¢ to 364¢/kg liveweight (lwt), while the Restocker Yearling Heifer Indicator had a slight lift of under 1¢ to 287¢/kg lwt.
This week, the National Heavy Steer Indicator fell by 18¢ to 325 ¢/kg lwt. Prices fell in all states except Victoria and WA. As quality dipped in Queensland, prices fell 35¢ below the national price.
Sheep market
The Sheep market saw mixed results this week. Yardings rose week-on-week in all states, excluding Tasmania and Victoria. Sheep yardings rose 3% to 183,096, lamb yardings were up 6% to 82,750 and combined yardings rose by 4% to 265,846.
New season lambs entered the market in growing numbers, but the high prices of last week were not replicated. Despite coming through with quality at trade weights, prices were approximately $10 below the previous week in Wagga and $2–4 cheaper in Forbes.
The Restocker Lamb Indicator eased 76¢ to 516¢/kg carcase weight (cwt). WA’s Muchea market made up 26% of the indicator. Throughput lifted significantly due to producers chasing better prices, which impacted the national price. Prices at the Wagga saleyard eased by 140¢ week-on-week to 592¢/kg cwt, the lowest price since May and the most significant weekly drop for 2024. The national price fell without the support of the usually strong market.
Slaughter
Week ending 2 August 2024
With all participating processing plants back online, slaughter returned to regular reporting.
Cattle slaughter was flat last week, lifting by 876 to 140,664 processed. Year-to-date, slaughter was 16% above the same time the previous year. The largest week-on-week shift in slaughter was in WA, lifting 8% to 2,797 head, followed by Victoria, which lifted 2% to 22,418 head. NSW and QLD slightly decreased by less than 1% to 34,223 and 73,135, respectively. SA and Tasmania also decreased, falling by 1% to 3,309 and 4,782 head, respectively.
Lamb slaughter lifted by 21,737 head (5%). Although it remained below the average weekly kill of 2024, it was 20% above the year-to-date compared to 2023 numbers. Sheep slaughter lifted again this week with more processors returning, recording a 20% increase or 26,135 head on the previous week.
Combined slaughter lifted 8% to a total of 616,790 head, buoyed by a 133% lift in WA to 82,242, returning above the 2024 weekly average. Tasmania lifted 25% to 9,748 head over the week, while Queensland lifted 17% to 1,639. NSW (190,659) and Victoria (273,223) lifted slightly week-on-week, while SA (59,279) was the only state to see a decrease in throughput.
