Good prices bring cattle to saleyards

IT HAS been an interesting couple of weeks in the livestock industry with prices either moving sideways or easing as some pressures appear to arrive. 

Cattle numbers coming into the Queensland and NSW  saleyards and direct to the works have risen over the last month with producers keen to take advantage of the current good prices and some being spooked by the forecast of an El Nino coming. 

The Eastern States Young Cattle Indicator has fallen 55c/kg over the past month and earlier this week sat at 965c/kg carcass weight. 

With the big numbers in the north, it means that there is now no northern competition in the southern markets like Wagga and into Victoria. 

The general prices are still good and in particular cows with heavy cows still selling from 400c to 430c with the Victorian markets showing the best return. 

Some Northern NSW store markets have seen price drops of up to 30c/kg liveweight as the season in the north tightens a bit. 

Although the final July beef export figures aren’t out yet, it is predicted that the final figure will only be down about six per cent which is pretty good given quota issues in both China and South Korea.

Most of the beef normally destined for the Chinese market is now being directed to the US where the grinding beef prices has fallen 10 per cent since the beginning of April.

Interestingly this doesn’t seem to have affected the cow prices at this stage which are still holding up very well.

Also interesting to note that Australian beef exports to China have fallen about 70 per cent since we filled the quota and the high tariff started with still a few good clients buying Australian beef.

Still on beef exports, Argentina has gained access to the Indonesian market for both beef cuts and offal but MLA  is  saying it is too early to say what sort of effect this could have on Australia’s trade to that country. 

Indonesia is a major importer of Australia beef and obviously a big buyer of live cattle with this trade unaffected by the access given to Argentina.

Winter keeps lambs home

There were small numbers throughout the yard at Powranna on Tuesday in what was a typical winter display. 

The highlight was a record broken in the lamb sale where a very heavy pen of lambs made $430/head which is an all time record.

 There were only 500 lambs yarded and the rest of the heavy made $240 to $270, trade $210 to $240 and light trade $160 to $170.

 Restockers paid $140 to $180 for light lambs.

 There was a very small selection of 200 mutton with the heavy sheep making $240 to $260, medium $150 to $200 and some very light $100 to $120/head.

There 75 trade and grown cattle with most prices similar to the previous week with trade cattle selling for 470c to 500c and grown steers and bullocks 430c to 450c. 

The best heavy cows made 400c to 422c while leaner store cows 350c to 374c. A few bulls sold for 336c to 340c/kg liveweight.