Weekly cattle and sheep market wrap

20 Mar 2026

Key points

Dry conditions drive record yarding at several northern NSW saleyards.
Sheep indicators show mixed but mostly stable results.
Lamb slaughter declines due to public holidays in SA, Tasmania and Victoria.

Worsening dry conditions contributed to record yarding across several northern NSW saleyards this week, with Tamworth, Gunnedah and Inverell all surpassing previous highs. Meanwhile, public holidays in SA, Victoria and Tasmania reduced slaughter activity across multiple categories.

Cattle market

National cattle yardings reached 94,564 head, a 15% week-on-week (WoW) increase. Tamworth set a new yarding record with 7,109 head, 34% above the previous record set only a week earlier. Gunnedah and Inverell also broke records with 7,250 and 4,653 head, respectively.

Outside of March 2026, Inverell had not yarded more than 4,000 head since February 2003. Armidale recorded 2,775 head, its highest yarding since March 2019. Combined, Armidale, Gunnedah, Tamworth and Inverell accounted for 23% of national cattle yardings.

Despite the significant increase in supply, indicator movements were stable, ranging from a 0.4% fall for dairy cows to a 5% decline for feeder heifers.

The National Young Cattle Indicator (NYCI) fell slightly to 474.22¢/kg liveweight (lwt) across 19,785 head. Dubbo contributed 10.8% of the category’s national yarding and achieved a premium of 505¢/kg lwt.

The Restocker Yearling Steer Indicator fell 3% to 499.2 ¢/kg lwt across 4,698 head. With 73% of the offering coming from Queensland, the indicator was largely insulated from NSW’s surge in supply.

Sheep market

National lamb yardings fell 1% to 190,244 head, while national sheep yardings increased (13%) to 79,551 head. Indicators delivered mixed but generally stable results. Wagga’s yarding dropped 24.3% to 35,200, with reports noting most lambs were sold. The National Trade Lamb Indicator eased 0.5% to 1,156.5¢/kg carcase weight (cwt), across 37,829 head.

The Heavy Lamb Indicator remained steady at 1,107.3¢/kg cwt despite a 26% fall in supply to 27,395 head, with Ballarat contributing 16% of the category.

The Mutton Indicator declined 1% to 791.5¢/kg cwt across 51,946 head. Forbes continued to post strong mutton premiums, averaging 878¢/kg cwt across 5,325 head this week.

Slaughter

Week ending 13 March 2026

Cattle slaughter

National cattle slaughter increased across all states from the same period last year, (except SA) bringing the national total to 145,519 head – up 11.8% year-on-year (YoY). Queensland recorded a small weekly decline of 4%, while public holidays in SA, Tasmania and Victoria resulted in approximately 20% WoW declines for each state.

State-by-state cattle slaughter YoY:

NSW: up 11% to 37,090
Queensland: up 15% to 76,157
SA: down 19.5% to 3,041
Tasmania: up 4.8% to 4,140
Victoria: up 5.4% to 21,428
WA: up 48.2% to 3,663.

Sheepmeat

Public holidays also affected sheepmeat processing in SA, Tasmania and Victoria. National lamb slaughter decreased 5.3% WoW to 399,247 head (-12.5% YoY). National mutton slaughter was steady WoW to 123,419 head (-36,6% YoY).

State-by-state lamb slaughter YoY:

NSW: up 6% to 127,022
Queensland: down 15% to 1,014
SA: down 20.8% to 40,705
Tasmania: down 40.1% to 4,993
Victoria: down 23.4% to 169,245
WA: up 2.8% to 56,268.

Attribute content to: Alex Fry, Market Information Analyst

Information is correct at time of publication on 20 March 2026.

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