Home - Beef Central

Dubbo sale 5 Dec 2019: Downward trend continues

Cows continue their downward trend losing a further 8c to 13c however young cattle to the restockers were the highlight lifting in price by up to 20c with solid interest from southern restockers…Read More

David Monk, December 6, 2019

Property

Weekly Property Review: Defining property sales in 2019

In our second last weekly property review for 2019, we present a state-by-state snapshot of the defining property sales across Australia, as reported over the past 12 months…Read More

Property editor Linda Rowley, December 5, 2019

Genetics

2019 bull sales: Your complete guide to how each major beef breed fared

Beef Central’s annual breed-by-breed analysis of bull sales during 2019 exposes wide variance in performance, based on average prices and numbers of bulls sold per breed ..Read More

Jon Condon, December 5, 2019

Genetics

2019 bull sales: 13pc decline in numbers sold at auction

A combination of fewer bulls being catalogued for sale by bull breeders, and lower sale clearance rates has driven a 13 percent decline in the number of bulls sold at auction this year across Australia, Beef Central’s annual analysis of bull sale trends has shown…Read More

Jon Condon, December 5, 2019

Markets

Southern weaner sales kick off: opening market underwhelms at Euroa + VIDEO

Hopeful of achieving an overall sale average of 330c/kg, selling agents and participating vendors experienced a more sedate result that ranged mostly from 300 to 330c/kg, which was deemed satisfactory under the circumstances without being lavish…Read More

Murray Arnel, December 5, 2019

News

Israeli animal activists secretly film WA cattle properties

Pressure on Australia’s livestock export trade to Israel is mounting again following the release of footage in the country allegedly showing Australian cattle being mistreated on Western Australian cattle properties…Read More

James Nason, December 4, 2019

News

Agriculture, Environment Departments to merge in Federal shake up

A major restructure of the Australian public service was today announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison that will see the number of Federal Departments reduce from 18 to 14…Read More

James Nason, December 5, 2019

News

$1.9 million for farm safety awareness campaign

Beef Central, December 5, 2019

Markets

Dalby sale 4 Dec 2019: Weaners sell to cheaper rates

Beef Central, December 5, 2019

Markets

Chris Howie’s southern market wrap – November 2019

Chris Howie, December 4, 2019

Weather

Weekly rainfall wrap + rain outlook, 4 Dec 2019

Bureau of Meteorology, December 4, 2019

Markets

Roma store sale 3 Dec 2019: Weaners dominate 5600 head yarding

Beef Central, December 4, 2019

Production

Cattle productivity webinars to focus on injectable trace minerals

Beef Central, December 4, 2019

News

Israeli animal activists secretly film WA cattle properties

James Nason, December 4, 2019

News

Cattle vets: Qld producers will be among major losers from lay pregnancy testing

Queensland producers will be among the big losers from lay pregnancy testing decision, says Dr Ian Bradshaw, president of the Australian Cattle Veterinarians…Read More

Beef Central, December 3, 2019

Ag Tech

Hungry Jacks founder Jack Cowin says farmers can capitalise on new diets

‘The burgers are better at Hungry Jacks’ and now, according to the Founder of the fast food chain, they are also better for our world. And whilst the recent release of the plant-based Rebel Whopper has attracted a new customer base, Jack Cowin’s primary ambition is to produce more of these economical alternative proteins in Australia, leading to additional jobs and greater investment…Read More

Beef Central, December 2, 2019

Markets

Chris Howie’s southern market wrap – November 2019

The cattle market reset seems to have come as a surprise to many considering the continued commentary around demand for 90CL grinding beef and the Chinese export market. Meanwhile, the southern industry is gearing up for the annual weaner cycle with large sales set to fire up immediately after the festive break…Read More

Chris Howie, December 4, 2019

Genetics

2019 bull sales: Your complete guide to how each major beef breed fared

Beef Central’s annual breed-by-breed analysis of bull sales during 2019 exposes wide variance in performance, based on average prices and numbers of bulls sold per breed ..Read More

Jon Condon, December 5, 2019

Weekly Kill Reports

Weekly kill: Grids soften as export meat prices ease and seasonal closures loom

Direct consignment slaughter price signals are becoming harder to distinguish, as more processors withdraw from making offers this week, confident that they have most of their kill requirements covered through to seasonal closures due in a fortnight’s time. As well as supply/demand pressures, another clear reason for this price adjustment is a big check in export meat prices seen in the market this week…Read More

Jon Condon, December 3, 2019

Trade

China’s frantic protein demand rolls-on in November beef exports

China is now firmly on track to become Australia’s largest export beef customer by volume for the 2019 calendar year, November’s monthly beef export statistics indicate…Read More

Jon Condon, December 3, 2019

News

Kay’s Cuts: Beef is king of the US meat case

Beef has returned to its long-held role as king of the meat case in American supermarkets and grocery stores, due in no small part to the efforts of seedstock and cow-calf producers over the past 25 years, reports US market commentator Steve Kay in his monthly column for Beef Central…Read More

Steve Kay, December 2, 2019

Community News

Beef Central’s beef quiz – November 2019

Test your knowledge with Beef Central’s November 2019 beef and cattle industry quiz..Read More

Beef Central, December 2, 2019

Property

Weekly Property Review: Defining property sales in 2019

In our second last weekly property review for 2019, we present a state-by-state snapshot of the defining property sales across Australia, as reported over the past 12 months…Read More

Property editor Linda Rowley, December 5, 2019

Industry Dashboard

$A / $US Graph

Updated 7am daily

Today

0.6830

Source: NAB

ASX Market Index

06 Dec 2019 (updated 10am daily)

Company	Price	Trending
Elders	$6.31
Australian Agricultural Co	$1.14
Graincorp	$7.76
Ridley	$1.08
Woolworths	$38.02
Wellard	$0.04

Source: ASX

Beef Kill

Eastern States, weekly

Last Week

157658

Source: MLA's NLRS

EYCI

Eastern Young Cattle Indicator, c/kg

Today

499.75

Source: MLA's NLRS

90CL Cow

Imported 90CL cow beef price. Landed US, Ac/kg CIF

Today

968.3

Source: Steiner Consulting, MLA

Live Export

Live export feeder steer prices ex Darwin (c/kg liveweight)

Today

320

Source: Trade contacts

SOI Graph

Southern Oscillation Index (SOI)

Today

-9.07

Source: Australian Bureau of Meteorology

Feeder Steer Graph

Shortfed feeder steer 380-500kg - c/kg paddock sales, eastern states.

Today

322.5

Source: MLA's NLRS

What readers are saying

Kay’s Cuts: Beef is king of the US meat case

While the Australian beef industry fiddles with finding a way forward in the Yield Based Payment shere and we continue to praise the success of MSA which has been....

Mike Introvigne

NT study exposes major benefits from phosphorus supplementation

Similar studies to this have been done in the 1980s and 90s, with the same compelling outcome in terms of calving percentages and cow weights. It just shows the....

David Connellan

NT study exposes major benefits from phosphorus supplementation

Agree with Peter McHugh that supplementing with P year round has provided enormous production benefits in our herd over decades. Anecdotally. In this era of scientific based data, thanks to....

Val Dyer

RED MEAT 2019: ‘Cultural shift’ emerging in R&D adoption

This is a very complex issue. Firstly programmes that work under trial conditions do not always work in the real world of seasonal change and economic uncertainty -all the....

John hall

Israeli animal activists secretly film WA cattle properties

James Nason, December 4, 2019

Agriculture, Environment Departments to merge in Federal shake up

A major restructure of the Australian public service was today announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison that will see the number of Federal Departments reduce from 18 to 14…Read More

James Nason, December 5, 2019

$1.9 million for farm safety awareness campaign

A $1.9 million grant has been announced for FarmSafe Australia to fund awareness and education campaigns to help prevent farm accidents such as quad bike rollovers. ..Read More

Beef Central, December 5, 2019

AgForce: Lay pregnancy testing major win for Qld cattle industry

AgForce Cattle President Will Wilson has described Queensland Agriculture Minister Mark Furner’s decision to allow certified producers to able to conduct pregnancy tests and ovarian scanning on their cattle as a major win for Queensland’s $5 billion cattle industry…Read More

Beef Central, December 3, 2019

Markets

Dubbo sale 5 Dec 2019: Downward trend continues

David Monk, December 6, 2019

Southern weaner sales kick off: opening market underwhelms at Euroa + VIDEO

Murray Arnel, December 5, 2019

Dalby sale 4 Dec 2019: Weaners sell to cheaper rates

The supply of stock reduced from the very high level of the previous week with 2,359 head less to 6,715…Read More

Beef Central, December 5, 2019

Chris Howie’s southern market wrap – November 2019

Chris Howie, December 4, 2019

Production

Cattle productivity webinars to focus on injectable trace minerals

Upcoming webinars will focus on recent advances in trace mineral research which have delivered productivity benefits from the use of injectable trace minerals in cattle…Read More

Beef Central, December 4, 2019

Qld beef producers’ regenerative agriculture recognised in awards + VIDEO

Queensland beef producers Russell and Catriona Murdoch’s work to use regenerative agriculture to achieve both ecological and financial improvements within their grazing business were recognised when they were announced as finalists in the Reef Champion Awards in Mackay last night…Read More

Beef Central, November 27, 2019

RED MEAT 2019: Call for research to identify pain relief ‘gold standard’

A veterinarian has urged research to be fast-tracked to enable producers to effectively compare the various pain relief products now available for livestock…Read More

James Nason, November 20, 2019

Why are researchers painting zebra stripes on cattle?

Japanese researchers have conducted a unique experiment to test if stripes can provide the same benefits for cattle that they do for zebras…Read More

James Nason, November 18, 2019

Processing

Weekly kill: Grids soften as export meat prices ease and seasonal closures loom

Jon Condon, December 3, 2019

Weekly kill: Grids show easing trend, as processors fill remaining slots for the year

With three weeks remaining in the 2019 beef slaughter season, some Eastern states processors have lowered grid offers this week – or indeed withdrawn from quoting altogether – confident that they have their kill requirements more or less covered through to Christmas plant closures. It’s delivered some significant corrections in saleyards prices for slaughter cattle this morning. ..Read More

Jon Condon, November 26, 2019

Ownership changes for Kimberley’s Yeeda Pastoral Co and beef processing facility

Kimberley region cattleman Jack Burton has sold his family’s interests in Yeeda Pastoral Co and the Kimberley Meat Co processing facility he co-developed near Broome…Read More

Beef Central, November 19, 2019

Weekly kill: Cow market continues to surge, as 90CL burger meat price streaks higher

Slaughter cow prices continue to head into uncharted territory this week, in response to a relentless surge in international grinding beef market demand…Read More

Jon Condon, November 19, 2019

Lotfeeding

Carted water charges proposed for feedlot customers

The stock water access situation for eastern states feedlots continues to deteriorate, with one large Queensland yard this week proposing to charge custom-feeding clients for carted water from early next year…Read More

Jon Condon, November 28, 2019

Feedgrain Focus: Barley finds the floor as new-crop eases

Wheat prices are showing no signs of easing, but new-crop barley prices have dropped a few dollars per tonne in the past week to levels which are buying domestic slots in eastern Australia and exciting some export interest…Read More

Liz and Henry Wells, November 28, 2019

Losses mount in November grainfed trading budget

A record-high breakeven figure has been recorded in Beef Central’s monthly 100-day grainfed steer trading budget calculated this morning. Using our standard set of variables, we’ve arrived at a $47 loss on our typical 450kg feeder steer entering a downs feedlot today, and closing out after a 105 day program in March next year…Read More

Jon Condon, November 27, 2019

Feedgrain Focus: Warehousing trend, harvest heat lift prices

Wheat and barley bids to growers lift $5-10/t as growers remain reluctant sellers at current levels. Sorghum prices rally further as hopes for widespread early plant evaporate. ASX slides…Read More

Henry and Liz Wells, November 25, 2019

Live Export

Has 2019 been a turning point year for live exports?

2019 shaped as one of the most challenging years in the Australian livestock export industry’s history, but may have proven to be one of the most important for its future…Read More

James Nason, November 18, 2019

‘Dumb is expensive’: make things better by making things different

Keeping an open mind – and avoiding premature evaluation of an idea – is essential to the process of effectively embracing change, founder of Minds at Work, Jason Clarke, told the recent LIVEXchange conference in Townsville…Read More

James Nason, November 12, 2019

SE Asia Report: New 5pc breeder formula allows feeder permits to flow

Also in today’s October 2019 update: Chinese ASF epidemic results in sharp pork price rises as supply collapses and new a FMD outbreak in Thailand pushes cattle prices down…Read More

Dr Ross Ainsworth, November 8, 2019

Laporan Pasar: Industri Daging Sapi Asia Tenggara – Oktober 2019

Also in today’s October 2019 update: Chinese ASF epidemic results in sharp pork price rises as supply collapses and new a FMD outbreak in Thailand pushes cattle prices down…Read More

Dr Ross Ainsworth, November 8, 2019

Trade

China’s frantic protein demand rolls-on in November beef exports

China is now firmly on track to become Australia’s largest export beef customer by volume for the 2019 calendar year, November’s monthly beef export statistics indicate…Read More

Jon Condon, December 3, 2019

Australia ratifies trade deal with Indonesia

Australia today ratified its latest bilateral trade agreement, this time with its northern neighbour, Indonesia…Read More

Beef Central, November 26, 2019

$1000 steak – how to start a social media sensation

What are the chances of a butcher making a video of himself carving a piece of steak generating so much interest that it would go viral on Instagram with 10 million views?..Read More

Dr Ross Ainsworth, November 22, 2019

As 90CL beef prices boom, ‘It’s a good time to be an Australian processor,’ analysts say

The record bull-run in imported 90CL grinding beef prices shows no sign of abating, with the US indicator price climbing to a new record high of A840.6c/kg on Monday. “This is a good time to be a New Zealand or Australian cow processor,” analysts said this week. ..Read More

Beef Central, November 14, 2019

Genetics

2019 bull sales: Your complete guide to how each major beef breed fared

Beef Central’s annual breed-by-breed analysis of bull sales during 2019 exposes wide variance in performance, based on average prices and numbers of bulls sold per breed ..Read More

Jon Condon, December 5, 2019

2019 bull sales: 13pc decline in numbers sold at auction

Jon Condon, December 5, 2019

CSIRO auctions historic bull semen for charity

Advances in science mean an historic collection of bull semen held by CSIRO is no longer required by the national science agency, and will be auctioned this week to raise money for the charity. An on-line auction will include about 150 semen lots totalling about 5000 straws from a variety of breeds, representing AI donor bulls gathered in the 1980s and 90s…Read More

Beef Central, November 25, 2019

Weekly genetics review: Reflecting on the challenges of the 2019 bull selling season

As the 2019 bull selling season draws to a close, there are some key trends that have emerged from what has been a challenging year for all producers across the country. Despite the continued reduction in cow numbers, this year’s spring bull selling season was not as tough as many producers first feared. Strong sales with high clearances occurred across most breeds in NSW and Victoria, while in the north demand for bulls remained as strong as previous years, with total clearances at major sales…Read More

Genetics editor Alastair Rayner, November 7, 2019

Ag Tech

Hungry Jacks founder Jack Cowin says farmers can capitalise on new diets

Beef Central, December 2, 2019

RED MEAT 2019: “I can check my pastures while I eat my Weet-Bix”

One year ago Meat & Livestock Australia and Carwoola Pastoral Company near Canberra joined forces to put a wide range of ag tech products to the practical and economical test on the property. What were the findings?..Read More

James Nason, November 19, 2019

Agtech: Artificial Intelligence trial tracks JBS beef from paddock to plate

A ground-breaking trial underway with the nation’s largest red meat exporter, JBS Australia, is using sensors, Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things and blockchain to provide a data trail for the industry and consumers – all the way from paddock to plate…Read More

Beef Central, November 20, 2019

New digital ag research station to help future-proof farms

Drones, remote monitoring and advanced data analytics will provide scientists unprecedented accuracy in studying crops and farming systems able to cope with climate change, at the new Boorowa Agriculture Research Station, opened by Australia’s national science agency CSIRO this week…Read More

Beef Central, November 9, 2019