Weekly cattle and sheep wrap

02 Apr 2026

Key points

Cattle slaughter hits its highest weekly level since 2015.
Lamb and mutton yardings decrease by more than 43% ahead of Easter.
Mutton prices remain stable at 798¢/kg cwt, nearing record levels despite tight supply.

Easter public holidays significantly reduced yarding numbers, with many cattle and sheep market sales paused across the week. Meanwhile, national cattle slaughter continued operating at strong capacity, while sheep and mutton slaughter continued a downward trend.

Cattle market

National cattle yardings fell to 53,511 head due to the short week. Most indicators fell, except for the Feeder Heifer Indicator, which remained stable at 408¢/kg liveweight (lwt) on a smaller offering of 3,766 head.

The Restocker Yearling Heifer Indicator recorded the largest price drop, falling 7.6% to 352.5¢/kg lwt across an offering of 3,130 head.

Roma defied the national trend with a strong yarding of 8,472 head, up 1,019 head from last week, with numbers boosted by consignments from NSW. Despite solid buyer attendance, most categories softened 20¢–40¢.

Sheep market

National lamb yarding fell 46% to 112,716 head, while mutton yardings totalled 74,707 (down 43.5%). Despite the quieter week, all major indicators lifted, ranging from 0.1% for restocker lambs to a 2.3% rise for light lambs.

The Mutton Indicator remained stable at 798¢/kg carcase weight (cwt) across 35,509 head, continuing the strength in demand from processors..

The Restocker Lamb Indicator reached 1,206.5¢/kg cwt on a total yarding of 28,985 head, despite a 41% decline in supply. The Dubbo market reported strong restocker and feeder demand alongside a larger yarding at 37,150 head.

Slaughter

Week ending 27 March 2026

Cattle slaughter

National cattle slaughter continued to rise, increasing 1.5% week-on-week (WoW) to 161,540 head, up 9.5% year-on-year (YoY). This is the highest weekly total since the week of 23 October 2015.

State-by-state cattle slaughter YoY:

NSW: up 3.2% to 36,925
Queensland: up 9.1% to 82,916
SA: up 4.3% to 3,892
Tasmania: up 3.4% to 5,173
Victoria: up 14.5% to 28,371
WA: up 87.5% to 4,263.

Sheepmeat

National lamb slaughter fell 1.4% WoW to 415,541 head (18.2% YoY). National mutton slaughter fell 6.8% WoW to 122,519 (41% YoY).

State-by-state lamb slaughter YoY:

NSW: down 10.7% to 109,626
Queensland: down 20.6% to 1,333
SA: down 27% to 45,513
Tasmania: down 43.4% to 5,635
Victoria: down 24.6% to 194,779
WA: up 11.4% to 58,655.

Attribute content to: Alex Fry, Market Information Analyst

Information is correct at time of publication on 2 April 2026

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