Market Talk - Mutton price strong

Very dry conditions in Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia and Southern NSW are having a big impact on all types of livestock with record numbers of cattle coming through the saleyards and in turn putting pressure on prices. 

At Wagga on Monday there was a record number of 8,690 cattle yarded (including 2,400 cows) as the season around that saleyard very dry and many running out of water. 

In Victoria there have been isolated patches of rainfall in the 10-20 mm range but most are like us with not much rain in sight. 

Locally, the thunderstorms earlier this week saw some falls or 5-10 mm through parts of the Northern Midlands but nothing in the far North West and Midlands and Southern regions.

Plenty of farmers I spoke to on Tuesday were also commenting on the recent frosts to add to the dry weather and unfortunately we are close to the middle of May which is getting late for an autumn break.

Back to the interstate markets and on Monday Mortlake (Western Victoria) yarded 3,600 cattle (up 1,200 on the previous week) and there are about 30,000 cattle listed to be sold in store sales over the next week led by 5,000 advised for Wodonga and very big numbers at Mortlake and a special store sale at Hamilton. 

Luckily there is still strong interest from feeders and restockers/feeders particularly from Northern NSW and Queensland which has propped up the Southern sales.

Obviously these bigger numbers has put pressure on prices in the prime markets and at Wagga there were reports of price falls of 20c to 50c/kg liveweight. 

It means that a lot of trade cattle are fetching 320c to 360c while secondary types are more in the 240c to 280c/kg range. 

Export cattle were also cheaper earlier in the week but have still held up reasonably well with heavy cows at Wagga making 250c to 310c while the lighter cows at Mortlake made 170c to 240c.

The best grown steers and bullocks made 338c to 400c/kg which was about 30c cheaper than the week before. 

Locally at Powranna we saw a total of 205 cattle yarded with about 120 cows included and the heavy pens made 238c to 270c while leaner D2 cows made 180c to 220c and very lean D1 cows 124c to 150c with not as much restocker competition as the dry and cold weather sets in.

Just a bit of trivia around cattle slaughter figures. 

In the week ending May 2, there were 76,984 cattle slaughtered in Queensland, 32,378 in NSW, 24,373 in Victoria and 4,989 in Tassie. It just goes to show how big the Queensland beef industry really is.

The good news stories of the week revolve around the lamb and mutton markets with all commanding strong interest with mutton prices sitting at very high levels. 

At Powranna on Tuesday there were 1,677 mutton yarded and the extra heavy sheep made $190 to $208, heavy $188 to $200, medium $132 to $176, light $70 to $124 and very light $38 to $94 with very few sheep sold under $100/head. 

At these prices and with the season where it is, there will no doubt be some important decisions made on the culling of flock sheep over the next few week.