Cattle grid prices climb

Over-the-hooks (OTH) cattle indicators gained momentum this week, following tightened supply resulting from widespread rainfall across many parts of the eastern states.

Queensland

Queensland, which boasts the largest share of the national beef herd, saw the greatest gains, with an average increase of 21¢/kg cwt across all reported categories. The rainfall from Cyclone Trevor last week has restored an element of optimism in the cattle market, with some producers choosing to hold onto cattle, leading to increased processor competition.

Trade steers and heifers increased by 21¢ this week, to 496¢ and 491¢/kg cwt respectively. Since the price correction at the beginning of March, cows have gained momentum, with the medium cow over-the-hook indicator sitting at 395¢ this week, 26¢/kg cwt higher than last week.

Queensland cattle slaughter eased 7% to 72,937 head last week, supporting the increase in over-the-hook prices. However, the expectation for cattle supplies to tighten further also likely contributed to the lift.

NSW

With minimal rain forecast, NSW saw the smallest changes to over-the-hook indicators this week. Trade steers and heifers remained unchanged at 498¢ and 491¢/kg cwt respectively. Medium cows saw a small improvement of 1¢, to 346¢/kg cwt this week, with demand remaining relatively steady.

NSW cattle slaughter totalled 36,634 head, an increase of 3% from last week and 35% above year-ago levels.

Victoria

Over-the-hook indicators in Victoria saw an average increase of 3¢ across all reported categories this week.  Trade steers are trading at 518¢, which is 18¢ above year-ago prices, while trade heifers are 19¢ higher than 2018 at 497¢/kg cwt. Cows saw the largest improvement in Victorian over-the-hook indicators this week, with medium cows improving 7¢ to 343¢/kg cwt.

Slaughter eased slightly to 26,924 head, representing 18% of eastern states slaughter for the week ending 29 March 2019.