Weekly cattle and sheep market wrap

16 Oct 2026

Key points

Light, scattered rainfall was recorded across large parts of the country.

Despite the return to a full week of sales, national cattle yardings fell 7% week-on-week.

National lamb and sheep yardings rose 32% and 16% respectively.

Large parts of the country received patchy rainfall this week. Dry regions across south-west WA, southern Queensland, northern NSW and central-west NSW recorded scattered rainfall, although more rain is needed to provide meaningful relief from dry conditions.

Cattle market

The national cattle yarding fell 7% over the week to 54,403 head. Despite the return to a full selling week following the public holiday period, forecast rainfall encouraged some producers to retain stock.

All cattle indicators lifted over the week, with gains ranging from 0.4% for the Dairy Cow Indicator to 11% for the Restocker Yearling Heifer Indicator.

Cattle markets have been highly volatile in recent weeks, particularly restocker categories as dry conditions and changing rainfall forecasts drive sharp weekly movements in supply and demand.

The Restocker Yearling Steer Indicator lifted 7% across the week to 548¢/kg liveweight (lwt). Roma and Wagga Wagga saleyards accounted for 65% of the indicator offering, with market reports noting a mixed quality of young cattle yarded.

The Feeder Heifer Indicator lifted 8.5% over the week to 467¢/kg lwt across an offering of 4,556 head, a drop of 151 head from the previous week.

NSW yards accounted for 63% of the total offering, while Queensland contributed 24%.

Sheep market

Returning to a full week of sales, national lamb yardings lifted 32% to 186,153 head, the highest weekly total since April. The overall mutton yarding increased 16% to 69,243 head.

Despite the larger offerings, indicators remained firm to slightly stronger, with movements ranging from a 0.6% decline in the Merino Lamb Indicator to a 2.5% lift in the Restocker Lamb Indicator.

The Mutton Indicator remained firm at 830¢/kg carcase weight (cwt) across an offering of 46,731 head.

Wagga Wagga accounted for 20% of the offering and attracted a premium averaging 879¢/kg cwt. The market report also noted an outstanding offering across heavy ewes.

The Heavy Lamb Indicator lifted 1% over the week to 1,119¢/kg cwt across an offering of 22,022 head.

Wagga Wagga, Bendigo and Forbes combined to make up 63% of the total offering across the category with all reports noting strong competition for orders across heavier weights.

Slaughter

Week ending 9 October 2026

Cattle

Slaughter was heavily impacted by the public holiday long weekend. National cattle slaughter numbers decreased 14% week-on-week to 125,408 head.

State-by-state cattle slaughter (YoY):

NSW: down 10% to 25,917 head
Queensland: down 7% to 65,492 head
SA: up 1% to 3,094 head
Tasmania: up 3% to 3,883 head
Victoria: down 5.5% to 23,287 head
WA: up 1.5% to 3,735 head.

Sheep

Slaughter was heavily impacted by the public holiday long weekend with national lamb slaughter decreasing 3.5% to 359,287 head. The national sheep slaughter declined 15% to 134,776 head.

State-by-state lamb slaughter (YoY):

NSW: up 20% to 69,851 head
Queensland: down 25% to 924 head
SA: down 27% to 29,029 head
Tasmania: up 28.5% to 8,225 head
Victoria: up 2% to 195,739 head
WA: up 18% to 55,519 head.

Attribute content to: Alex Fry, MLA Market Information Analyst

Information is correct at time of publication on 16 October 2026

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