Weekly cattle and sheep market wrap

27 Feb 2026

Key points

All cattle market indicators lift week-on-week as key markets reopen after rain.
One pen of processor lambs sells for a Wagga record at $472/head.
Cattle slaughter continues upward trend while lamb slaughter retracts.

Cattle market

National cattle yardings fell 4% week-on-week (WoW) to 72,649 head, even as several key markets came back online after rain cancellations forced closures last week, including Roma. Restocker yearling heifers and steers had increased yardings of 3,703 head (up 120% WoW) and 4,744 head (up 64% WoW).

All indicators lifted over the week, with the rain contributing to increased buyer demand. The Restocker Yearling Heifer Indicator lifted 11.5¢ to reach 406.9¢/kg liveweight (lwt). The majority of supply for the category came from Central Queensland, with Roma (48.9%) and Dalby (9.9%) forming 58.8% of the yarding.

The Feeder Steer Indicator lifted slightly (1.4¢) to reach 472.6¢/kg lwt across a tighter supply of 6,755 head – a 13.2% decline WoW.

Sheep market

National sheep yardings rose 2.2% to 89,271 head, while national lamb yardings fell 5.2% to 167,086. After some welcome rainfall, all indicators lifted on a WoW basis. The Restocker Lamb Indicator lifted 11.5¢ to 1,124.5¢/kg carcase weight (cwt). Premiums were achieved at the large Eastern States markets in Wagga (1,261¢/kg cwt) and Ballarat (1,224¢/kg cwt) for restocker lambs, which made up 17.3% and 11.2% of the total yarding for the category.

At Wagga, a line of 4,460 fat score 4 processor lambs weighing more than 30.1kg averaged $385/head. One pen of 103 crossbred lambs sold for $472/head – a record for the highest priced pen sold at Wagga.

The Heavy Lamb Indicator lifted 48.2¢ WoW to 1097.2¢/kg cwt across a flat supply of 24,437 head (-0.7% WoW).

Slaughter

Week ending 20 February 2026

Cattle slaughter

National cattle slaughter remained steady WoW and lifted 7% on the same period last year, totalling 154,806 head. This total continues the trend of elevated slaughter numbers.

State-by-state breakdown year-on-year (YoY):

NSW: up 0.6% to 35,810
Queensland: up 8% to 80,191
SA: up 2.5% to 3,868
Tasmania: up 5.4% to 5,168
Victoria: up 11.5% to 25,971
WA: up 59.1% to 3,798.

Sheep slaughter

National sheep and lamb slaughter eased 2% WoW to 608,935 head. On a YoY basis, this represents a 16% decrease. Further breakdown shows a more considerable decrease in mutton slaughter (-9.2% WoW and -32.7% YoY) than lamb slaughter (up 0.5% WoW and -8.5% YoY).

State-by-state breakdown of lamb slaughter YoY:

NSW: down 0.5% to 120,889
Queensland: down 27.9% to 1,127
SA: down 22.8% to 44,452
Tasmania: down 3% to 9,731
Victoria: down 10.8% to 228,075
WA: down 0.4% to 52,354.

Attribute content to: Alex Fry, MLA Market Information Analyst

Information is correct at time of publication on 27 February 2026.

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