MLA’s cattle and sheep indicators return

Meat & Livestock Australia’s (MLA) full suite of market reporting including all cattle and sheep indicators will return tomorrow (Wednesday, 3 June 2020) after being suspended since 25 March due to COVID-19 disruptions to market reporting.

The Eastern Young Cattle Indicator (EYCI), National Trade Lamb Indicator (NTLI) and the indicator charts, tools and values across the MLA webpages will be available this week.

The EYCI Daily Summary report, Eastern States Daily Indicator (ESDI) report and Comprehensive Indicator report will also resume.

Full versions of prime and store cattle and sheep saleyard reports will be available including muscle score, fat score, estimated carcase weight, estimated dressing percentage and skin values.

MLA Chief Marketing & Insights Manager Lisa Sharp said the return of the indicators follows MLA’s Livestock Market Officers (LMOs) resuming physical market reporting at all saleyards covered by the indicators.

“Ensuring the health and safety of LMOs and the wider community has and continues to be our priority, and so we have taken a staged approach to LMOs returning to saleyards,” Ms Sharp said.

“Saleyards have put in place really stringent and detailed processes over the last few months to manage sales and social distancing. These processes, combined with changes to government requirements, have enabled LMOs to now return to saleyards.

“During the COVID-19 disruptions to market reporting, MLA developed temporary, alternative CV-19 cattle and sheep indicators to keep stakeholders informed. LMOs worked remotely to collect information which then fed into the CV-19 indicators.

“The CV-19 indicators provide a weighted seven-day rolling average live weight price, across several categories. We will continue to publish the CV-19 indicators on the Prices & Markets webpage but will regularly review this in line with the broader operating environment.”

Ms Sharp said MLA is examining methods to close the missing data series of livestock indicators caused by COVID-19 disruptions to market reporting between March and June.

“The CV-19 indicators have provided a very comparable assessment during a challenging, unprecedented time. Any replacement data MLA can generate will undergo a comprehensive and rigorous assessment using historical data before being publicly released and MLA will advise when and if this data is available,” Ms Sharp said.

“MLA thanks the stock agents and auctioneers, saleyard operators and their staff, saleyard software service providers and the livestock buying community that operate within saleyards for their patience and assistance during this time – ensuring reporting continued despite the extraordinary circumstances.”