Meet ‘OLI’ and ‘OYCI’ – two new market indicators for red meat and livestock producers
10 November 2023
The online selling of sheep and cattle has been growing in popularity in recent years. In response to this growing online marketplace, Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) has launched the first publicly available online indicators.
The National Livestock Reporting System (NLRS) reports on over 50 physical saleyard markets producing 16 price indicators that are reported on a daily, weekly and fortnightly basis. These indicators, along with accompanying market reports, drive more than 70% of MLA website traffic and cover about one quarter of all livestock transactions.
The two indicators launched today will monitor the online sales of cattle and lambs, called the Online Young Cattle Indicator (OYCI) and the Online Lamb Indicator (OLI).
According to Stephen Bignell, MLA’s Market Information Manager, by developing online indicators published on the MLA website, MLA would open-up greater information on this important area of the market.
“Online sales have been steadily growing in popularity as an alternative for producers to market their livestock,” Mr Bignell said.
“The online indicators provide producers with a greater breath of data then they’ve previously had. It increases the sales-channels that MLA reports on.”
The sale information is recorded through the online platforms and presented to MLA in a clean format which is simple to input into indicator frameworks.
“Online marketplaces boomed during the national rebuild between 2020 – 2022. Even as the herd and flock rebuild matures, we’ve seen online marketplaces remain popular.”
The OYCI and OLI follow the same structure and model of current indicators published on the MLA website, providing a useable interface for producers and other stakeholders. They will capture cattle and lamb sales on online platforms that match predefined specifications.
