LARGE numbers of finished cattle have been heading from north to south in recent weeks, as southern processors push to keep up production in a traditionally quiet time of the year.

Processing numbers in southern plants are up on the last two years, with Victorian plants informing Meat & Livestock Australia’s weekly slaughter numbers last week processing 26,763 head – increasing from 22,500 the same week last year and 14,600 on the same week in 2023.

If MLA’s saleyard reports are an indication, many of those cattle are coming from the north. In his weekly Dalby cattle sale report, Trevor Hess last noted that of the 1200 cows sold, more than half went to southern exporters.

Two factors appear to be driving the shift of cattle down south:

• A profitable meat processing environment pushing companies to keep up production
• And a lack of cattle in the south making a traditional production gap even bigger

As Beef Central reported last week, beef export records have been falling like ten pins – with monthly, financial year and grainfed exports at all-time high. Numbers to the US, China, Korea and Japan are all up.

Demand appears to be particularly high for good heavy processor cows, with MLA’s processor cow indicator jumping from 272c/kg in the middle of June to open today at 304c/kg. Big offering of cows are now being posted in saleyards, with 1700 cows at the Roma Saleyards today and 1900 cows on the draw for Dalby tomorrow.

While the grinding beef market has levelled off in recent months, it is still trading at historically high prices. Beef Central industry dashboard is showing 90CL cow prices to be 100c/kg higher than last year.

Shortage of heavy cattle in the south

Elders market analyst Richard Koch noted in his weekly market roundup yesterday that most of the company’s southern livestock managers were either on holidays or have been on holidays in recent weeks, which he said should tell you enough about the amount of activity in the south.

Large numbers of trucks departed Victoria and Southern NSW earlier this year taking light cattle for backgrounding in Northern NSW and Qld – many cull cows were sold early.

Another reliable supply in southern processing systems, being dairy cows, have either sold early or have not being carrying good condition. As a result, cows carrying plenty of weight have been the order of the day for southern processor buyers.

Nutrien Chinchilla-based agent Terry Ryan said the southern processors have been underpinned the market in recent weeks – with most going from the saleyards and plenty from the paddock.

“They are only buying the very top end, either the good heavy fat cows and good heavy fat bullocks,” Mr Ryan said.

“The Northern guys are not spending the same amount of money as the Southern guys. They must be getting enough cattle on weight at the works, which filling their better end.”

Elders Qld/NT livestock sales manager Ashley Loveday said the southern processors have pushed up the price of heavy 600kg+ cows.

“They’ve gone from making $3/kg lw to $3.20/kg lw, but the moment you step down from those weights, you’re back to where the market’s been sitting, $2.80 to 3/kg lw for cows under 600kgs ad prices keep coming back as you go down in the weight with a 400 to 500kg cow probably only making $2.50c/kg lw,” he said in the company’s market update this week.

More access for transport

One livestock transporter who spoke to Beef Central said the recent movements of cattle from north to south had been keeping plenty of southern transporters busy.

“There seems to be plenty of trucks available to do it, numbers are not very good in the south,” he said.

He said increased access for two trailer road trains into more populated areas of Victoria had made the trip from north to south more viable – with most of the cattle now being transported at a cost of $100-$150/head.