Weekly cattle and sheep market wrap
20 June 2025
Key points:
- Feeder steer prices lifted due to strong saleyard support.
- Extra heavy lambs hit a new Ballarat record at $424/head.
- Queensland cattle slaughter recorded its highest weekly kill in five years.
Cattle market
The cattle market remained positive with most indicators increasing. Yardings also remained stable, easing slightly by 560 to 68,308 head.
The Feeder Steer Indicator led the way, rising 14¢ to 398¢/kg liveweight (lwt) - outperforming the Heavy Steer Indicator which finished at 372¢/kg lwt. Feeder steers and heifers saw consistent price lifts, rising 25¢/kg for feeder steers at Moss Vale and 15–35¢/kg for heifers at Wagga.
The Processor Cow Indicator rose 10¢ to 282¢/kg lwt, with prices up 7–8¢/kg at Wagga and similar gains at Roma.
Sheep market
Heavy and trade lamb prices remain above 1,000¢/kg carcase weight (cwt) but overall, the sheep market eased. Combined sheep and lamb yardings rose by 154,256 to 360,348 head.
The Heavy Lamb Indicator rose 12¢ to 1,060¢/kg cwt while the Trade Lamb Indicator eased 19¢ to 1,030¢/kg cwt. Extra heavy lambs set a Ballarat record at $424/head while a price correction was evident at Wagga and Forbes.
Slaughter
Week ending 13 June 2025
Cattle
Cattle slaughter eased by 6,258 to 146,272 head, facilitated by NSW (-3,845) and Victorian (-3,957) declines. Queensland slaughter reached a five-year high at 81,026 head. SA experienced a substantial increase by 1,788 to 4,562 head. Year-on-year (YoY) slaughter remains strong, now sitting 13% above 2024 numbers.
Breakdown of cattle slaughter in remaining states:
- Tasmania: down by 21% to 1,136 head
- Victoria: down by 16%to 21,577 head
- WA: up by 22% by 2,476 head.
Sheep
Lamb slaughter eased in all states except WA. National slaughter eased by 74,793 to 386,865 head, mostly driven by Victorian slaughter decline (-67,736 head). YoY slaughter is down 7% from 2024 numbers. However, sheep slaughter increased by 9,610 to 187,528 head. NSW and Victorian slaughter both lifted. NSW by 15% or 11,059 head and Victoria by 23% or 13,543 head.
Attribute content to Emily Tan, MLA Market Information Analyst
