WA weekly cattle summary
17 August 2012
Local cattle supplies remain tight
Seasonal conditions remain in the balance at this stage of the year in many parts of southern WA. There was once again some wide spread rainfall seen in the southern Agricultural districts early in the week with the largest falls remaining close to the coast. Having said this however there was some reasonable falls recorded in eastern wheatbelt areas. Seasonal conditions remain below average for this time of year in most areas due to very cold and dry conditions which have hampered both feed and crop growth. Producers are hopeful that there will be a solid and at least average rainfall recorded throughout spring in order to try and recover what have been tough conditions thus far. Conditions in the majority of the northern and eastern pastoral regions remain moderate wit mustering activity still very strong.
There continues to be a solid flow of cattle from the north to the south to both saleyards and direct to processing works. Numbers were again predominately low in physical markets with both the Great Southern and southwest fixtures having very limited supplies. This saw Muchea remain the largest yarding by far for the week. This was due to solid supplies of pastoral cattle.
Local drafts of trade, store and export categories of cattle were very low this week. Quality at all three markets was generally plainer this week and very mixed with prime trade cattle volumes of all descriptions hard to find and this did have an affect on the market throughout the classes.
Mixed quality hits demand
There continued to be limited supplies of vealers outside of lightweight calf drafts with the majority of these sourced from pastoral regions as local drafts remained in limited numbers. Demand for locally bred calves remained solid from the local trade and restocker sectors, while plain quality pastoral heifers remained discounted to southern restockers. There were very limited numbers of either grass or grain assisted cattle.
Once again competition was recorded from both the local trade and feeder sectors with little or no change realised, due to both the limited numbers and mixed quality. This was also the case in the store market with quality and weight in all three yardings spread over a wide range. Demand from restockers and feeders also remained at similar levels with limited or little change recorded in prices.
The majority of heavy weight export steers and bullocks were sourced from pastoral regions with a drop in quality recorded with these resulting in weaker and demand and prices. Heavy weight mature heifer sales fell in value under a lower processor demand. The cow market started the week at slightly dearer levels but this waned as the week progressed with overall values barely equal to last week.