Weekly cattle and sheep market wrap

Cattle

Prices as at 5pm 8 February 2024

The cattle market was mixed this week with lifts to feeder and restocker steers, and easing in all other indicators. Yardings lifted week-to-week by 20,304 head to 74,172. A 38% lift to last week, and 98% year-on-year.

The feeder steer indicator rose by 5¢ this week to 355¢/kg carcase weight (cwt) alongside a 38% increase in yardings to 15,407 head. Lifts in yardings and price often indicate a change in confidence and increases to demands. Queensland buyers drove competition for medium and heavy feeder steers, lifting the state price nearly 20¢ above the national indicator to 373¢/kg live weight (lwt).

The heavy steer indicator eased 10¢ to 301¢/kg lwt this week. Increased supply of 1,032 head to make a yarding of 4,323 put pressure on prices. Southern sales were impacted by lower quality animals and lower demand for a heavy export product.  

Sheep and lambs

Prices as at 5pm 8 February 2024

The sheep and lamb market eased this week, with most indicators down between 20¢ and 40¢. Merino lambs however, lifted over the week by nearly 20¢ to 562¢/kg cwt.

Sheep and lamb yardings eased by 48,601 head to 346,920 head, a 12% drop week-to-week. This was evenly split through falls in both sheep and lambs, with a sheep yarding of 135,989, and lamb yarding of 210,931 for the week.

The national trade lamb indicator was down 22¢ to 682¢/kg cwt. Despite a fall of 4,855 to 45,482 trade lamb yardings, well finished trade lambs off supplementary feed through many of the top saleyards reduced the impact of easing prices. Forbes and Ballarat saleyards rewarded quality with prices coming in 39¢ and 75¢ above the national indicator price, respectively.

The light lamb indicator had the largest shift week-to-week falling by 3% or 21¢ to 625¢/kg cwt. South Australia performed the best within this indicator, 60¢ above the national price, largely driven through positive competition in the saleyards pulling up prices for lighter stock.

Slaughter

Week ending 2 February 2024

The National Livestock Reporting Service (NLRS) reported cattle slaughter increased this week by 18,477 head to 114,064 head total. Most states had an uplift in slaughter, the largest change occurred in Queensland, where slaughter lifted by 23% to 57,187.

Combined sheep and lamb slaughter lifted week-on-week to 580,172 head – 3% above year ago numbers. Separately, lamb slaughter lifted to 407,859, and sheep slaughter to 172,313. NSW slaughter numbers faced the largest lift in sheep and lamb slaughter of 12% or 21,394 head.