Cow market up as restockers seek store stock

INTERSTATE cattle prices continue to improve as more rain falls and numbers coming to the market start to slow (particularly in the north).

These markets are being pushed to even greater heights by the big feedlots and extra restocker orders from most of the Eastern States where the rains have been generally widespread. 

The young cattle markets are flying with many making over 550c and lighter weaners up to 700c/kg liveweight and we are starting to get close to the highs of 2022. 

At Wagga on Monday the main run of young steers (330-400 kg) sold to a top of 629c and averaged 588c while heifers averaged 508c/kg. 

On Monday evening the Eastern States Young Cattle Indicator sat at 992c/kg carcass weight. 

The heavier feeder steers (over 400 kg) sold to 588c and averaged 552c while export cattle again sold very well. 

At Mortlake on Monday heavy cows made 390c to 441c and at Wagga 390c to 420c/kg.

Locally, at Powranna we saw a better cow market with heavy cows averaging 13c higher making 342c to 388c while leaner D2 cows made 316c to 363c and very lean D1 cows 270c to 330c. 

All these leaner cows were bought by restockers with some good lines making 330c to 363c with plenty of these store cows making $1,550 to $1,795/head. 

The best heavy cows made $2,200 to $2,754/head. It will be interesting to see where these store cattle prices head with Mortlake drawing for 6,000 on Thursday and Ballarat 5,500 on Friday which are big numbers for this time of the year.

There are a lot of positive commentary around the cattle industry but there is also some seeing some headwinds as Australia starts to fill the export quotas into China and Korea and more competition in the US from Brazilian beef as they look to replace their Asian markets.

It will be an interesting watch, with the weather also likely to play a part as the BOM forecasts some dry times ahead in late winter and spring.

Strong market for light lambs at Powranna

There was a larger yarding of 1,073 lambs (443 more) at Powranna on Tuesday with fewer trade and heavy pens and more light trade types included

All lambs met a stronger market with the best heavy pens making $312 to $336 and trade $240 to $294. 

Restockers paid $180 to $228 for light trade and $120 to $198 for light lambs to go back to the paddock. There was also a bigger number of 956 mutton (386 more) and with less competition prices lost most of the gains of the past fortnight. 

Heavy sheep made $170 to $224, medium $140 to $156 and light $124 to $126 while restockers bought very light sheep for $86 to $116/head.

There was a larger yarding of 104 trade and export cattle with about 60% being cows.

Apart from one outstanding steer that sold for 486c, most of the trade yearlings were cheaper with steers making 404c to 486c, heifers 410c to 452c and secondary heifers 356c to 396c/kg

There was a bigger number of 60 cows and all cows sold to a dearer market with heavy cows averaging 13c higher making 342c to 388c while leaner types made 316c to 363c and very lean D1 cows 270c to 330c/kg liveweight with all these lean cows being bought by restockers.