Weekly cattle and sheep market wrap

Cattle market

The cattle market returned to prices seen at the start of this month, with all indicators up between 1–45¢/kg liveweight (lwt) on last week. Yardings eased as the east coast rainfall constricted supply. National yardings eased 6% to 57,689 head. There were declines across all states bar Queensland, which is showing a strong supply of cattle, up 37% week-on-week.

The Processor Cow Indicator and Dairy Cow Indicator were the best performers this week, lifting 24¢ and 45¢ respectively for 280¢/kg lwt and 245¢/kg lwt.

The Restocker Yearling Steer was at a premium to the other steer indicators, returning to early-2025 prices at 404¢/kg cwt. With less than 1¢ movement in the feeder market, this brought the restocker premium to 25¢ above feeder steers 379¢/kg lwt, and 56¢ above heavies at 347¢/kg lwt. This is the largest gap between restockers and feeders since March.

Sheep market

The sheep market was strong this week, as demand for heavy trade and export lambs drove all indicators in a positive direction. The three finished lamb indicators for light, trade and heavy lambs, all lifted over 100¢ over the week. Yardings eased across both categories, though strong prices encouraged more numbers in the later sales. Lamb yardings were down 1% to 195,315 head while sheep yardings eased 13% to 93,795 head.

The heavy lamb market was the leader this week, lifting 103¢ to record prices above 1,000¢/kg carcase weight (cwt). The National Heavy Lamb Indicator finished the week on 1,005¢/kg cwt thanks to intense demand across saleyards for export weight stock. Processors lifted competition in saleyards as supply constraints and transport disruptions caused increased demand. Forbes, Ballarat, Dubbo, Horsham, Bendigo, Hamilton and Tamworth sales saw heavy lamb averages top 1,000¢ with multiple Victorian saleyards producing lambs worth over $400/head. Here’s a more in-depth analysis on the current heavy lamb market.

Demand for heavies pulled up trade weights, lifting the National Trade Lamb Indicator to 987¢/kg cwt, just 2¢ shy of the previous record in 2019. Again, multiple saleyards across Victoria and NSW saw average prices above 1,000¢, though strong supply through Wagga reduced competition in the market measuring prices.

As we enter the seasonal dip in lamb supply, heavy and trade lamb supply is likely to remain a key market driver.

Slaughter

Week ending 23 May 2025

National cattle slaughter remained strong despite heavy rainfall impacting regions across the east coast. Slaughter lifted 172 head, totalling 152,569 head processed over the week. This is once again the largest kill week for 2025 and the largest throughput since December 2019. Small reductions across most states were combated by a lift in Queensland – which reached its individual record throughput since December 2019, showing the strength in the state’s capacity to process not only Queensland cattle, but stock from other states.

• NSW: down 4% to 35,068
• Queensland: up 2% to 80,107
• SA: down 0% to 3,781
• Tasmania: down 0% to 5,194
• Victoria: down 1% to 25,965
• WA: down 3% to 2,454.

Sheep and lamb slaughter eased this week, though they remain above year-to-date comparisons on last year for both categories. Lamb slaughter came back by 6,513 head, for 500,085 head processed over the week. However, figures staying above half a million for eight of the past 10 weeks show the size of the 2024 lamb cohort. Sheep slaughter eased 13,614 head for 185,240 processed, making a combined sheep slaughter reduction of 3% to 685,325 – in line with the 2025 weekly average.

• NSW: down 7% to 196,774
• Queensland: up 3% to 1,508
• SA: down 2% to 71,990
• Tasmania: up 1% to 15,263
• Victoria: down 4% to 298,151
• WA: up 10% to 101,639

Attribute to: Erin Lukey, MLA Senior Market Information Analyst