Weekly cattle and sheep market wrap

24 Jul 2026

Key points

Queensland continues to dominate weekly cattle yarding.
Winter maintenance closures caused sheep and lamb indicators to drop.
Mutton slaughter remained stable but at a historically low level.

Cattle market

The national cattle yarding dropped 9% to 67,283 head. A smaller offering brought weaker results across most cattle indicators, ranging from a 4% drop for the Heavy Steer Indicator to stability for the Processor Cow Indicator. A significant portion of the yarding continues to be drawn from Queensland, which contributed 45% this week.

The Restocker Yearling Steer Indicator remained dropped 0.5% at 531¢/kg liveweight (lwt) across an offering of 6,107 head. Queensland formed 84% of the total contribution. The trend of restocker categories coming from Queensland was mirrored in the Restocker Yearling Heifer Indicator, with Queensland forming 81% of that offering and making up 49% of the Online Young Cattle Indicator.

The Heavy Steer Indicator dropped 4% to 441¢/kg lwt across a small offering of 2,343 head. The best price for the category was found in Wagga at 514¢/kg lwt with a very tight offering of 48 head – the only market to break 500¢.

Sheep market

The national lamb yarding dropped 12% over the week to 126,578 head, while the national sheep yarding also dropped 8% to 44,848 head. NSW formed 73% of the lamb offering and 70% of the sheep offering. All sheep and lamb indicators fell over the week from 1.5% for the Merino Lamb Indicator to 4% for the Restocker Lamb Indicator. The drop comes as more processors shut for winter maintenance periods, suppressing demand across yards.

The National Heavy Lamb Indicator fell 3% to 1,128¢/kg carcase weight (cwt) across an offering of 21,315 head. Best prices for the category came from Corowa, averaging 1,253¢/kg cwt, while the 306 head offered in Katanning made 1,222¢/kg cwt.

The Merino Lamb Indicator made 1,121¢/kg cwt across an offering of 14,002 head with NSW making up 60% of the offering and WA making up 22%. Carcoar made the best prices at 1,238¢/kg cwt.

Slaughter:

Week ending 17 July 2026

Cattle

National cattle slaughter numbers increased 3% week-on-week (WoW) to 152,022 head. Queensland had the largest spike, with WoW numbers increasing by 6% to 80,917 head. SA and Tasmania noted a slight WoW drop off – down 1% to 3,885 head and down 11% to 4,246 head respectively.

State-by-state cattle slaughter (YoY%):

NSW: down 7% to 33,906 head

Queensland: up 1% to 80,917 head

SA: up 4% to 3,885 head

Tasmania: down 13% to 4,246 head

Victoria: stable at 25,284 head

WA: up 35% to 3,784 head.

Sheepmeat

National lamb slaughter fell 7% over the week to 311,172 head while mutton slaughter remained stable but at a historically low level at 37,397 head. Winter processor shutdowns contributed to the fall.

State-by-state lamb slaughter (YoY%):

NSW: down 11% to 85,816 head

Queensland: down 12% to 1,075 head

SA: down 21% to 21,340 head

Tasmania: down 6% to 6,197 head

Victoria: down 6% to 176,797 head

WA: down 56% to 19,947 head.

Attribute content to: Alex Fry, MLA Market Information Analyst

Information is correct at time of publication on 24 July 2026.

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