Weekly cattle and sheep market wrap

Cattle and sheep supply is expected to continue increasing until the end of the year as the herd and flock rebuilds move into summer.

Cattle

Overall cattle yardings increased by 35%, with a 35% and 40% lift in NSW and Queensland respectively. A 45% increase in heifer numbers saw a softening in average prices by $54.45 per head. A combination of increased supply and greater weights through the saleyards reduced pricing pressures.

Dubbo yardings increased by 3,234 head or 200% week-on-week after reduced yardings last week. Quality also improved, ensuring strong demand from feeders and processors at the saleyard.

The Eastern Young Cattle Indictor held firm at 1,019.4c/kg cwt with strong restocker demand. Throughput through the indicator remained strong but restocker contribution increased by 5%, and the average price was 1,122.74c/kg cwt.

The feeder steer indicator softened 15c week-on-week with prices from Roma trading 2c under the national average. Quality at the saleyard varied with a greater supply of heavy steers going through the market.

Sheep

Overall sheep yardings increased 60% week-on-week with lamb yardings improving 50%. The young lamb offerings moving through the saleyards increased 93% week-on-week after particularly low yardings from last week’s wet conditions.

Wagga Wagga had record yardings this week at 80,650 head, nearly double the yardings from last week. Wetter conditions from the past few weeks have created a back log of stock that are finished and ready for sale. With more wet weather forecast, getting stock to sale this week is more pressing. The heavy lamb indicator softened 68c week-on-week after Wagga Wagga contributed 32% and traded at 99c under the national average. Most of the price disparity came down to quality, with the huge yarding allowing buyers to be very picky.

Carcoar also had a lift in yardings by 560% on last week. A large number of new season lambs moved through the market with good quality in the heavier stock.

Slaughter

Cattle slaughter has softened slightly to 94,199 head despite the floods from last week making accessibility to processing facilities more difficult.

Lamb slaughter reduced 8% to 373,909 head and sheep slaughter softened to 124,383 head. The shortened week in Victoria with the public holiday limited sheep and lamb numbers in the state. Wet conditions in NSW brought sheep slaughter numbers to year-ago levels in the state.

Other market updates

Forbes cattle and sheep did not run this week due to floods in the area.

Hamilton will move to their seasonal three sales a week from next week.

The new co-products report was released this week with halal beef lips reaching a new record of $6.01/kg, 16.5% up month on month.

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The lot feeding brief for quarter 3 was also released, showing increasing capacity in the feedlot sector.

To read the full report, click here