AFTER taking a slight breather for a few weeks, slaughter cow prices through the saleyards system have hit blistering new highs again this week, suggesting one thing: weight beats rate.

Simply getting lean meat into a box is clearly the imperative over any quality considerations at present for many export processors – particularly those in southern regions.

Southern processor buyers are again driving the market, desperate for ‘anything with a tail’ to put on the rail. As reported in yesterday’s weekly kill report, paddock sales have been made as far north as Daly Waters (south of Katherine in the NT) for tropical cows bought for around $1400, sold over the scales for shipment to Victoria – some 3000km away.

Saleyards cow prices have also lit-up again this week, after a softer period since the previous spike back in early August. Even bigger-framed dairy cows have topped an incredible 450c/kg at sales this week, with Jersey types making as much as 390-400c.

Current rates make cows look very expensive relative to grass steer.  As an example, four-tooth grass heavy bullocks sold at Dalby this morning topped 440c and averaged from 420-434c. A few rows on, best heavy cows sold for 410c. Go figure.

The NLRS Processor cow indicator (see graph – all cows sold via NLRS-reported yards +400kg) has surged over the past fortnight, hitting 394c/kg today – well past its previous record high of 380c/kg seen back in 2022 drought recovery period when slaughter cows were particularly scarce.

Producers have clearly reacted to the very attractive rising cow prices again, with seven-day volume traded via NLRS-reported saleyards for the week ended today up 16pc on the start of the month.

Here’s a quick sample of this week’s saleyards trends on cows:

A small yarding at Bairnsdale VIC this morning saw heavy cows soar to 460c/kg, averaging 453c, up another 13c on last week

Leongatha yarded 2217 head yesterday, up 10pc on last week, with cows making up more than half the yarding. Heavy cows made mostly from 410-470c/kg, up another 11c on last week.

Mortlake yarded 1330 head on Monday. The cow offering – almost half the yarding – comprised approximately 60pc dairy breeds. Most beef cows and dairy breeds being dearer by 10 to 20c/kg. Heavy beef cows made from 420-478c/kg while medium weights sold from 390-436c/kg. Dairy cows particularly those with better coverage ranged from 380c to an incredible 450c/kg.

Naracoorte sale yesterday yarded about a thousand head, with more than half the yarding made up of cows following recent strong returns. Cows sold 10c/kg stronger with the heavy score 3s and 4s making from 415-453c/kg. The score 2 cows sold from 378-410c/kg.

Further north, Dalby sale this morning saw heavy score 3 cows sell to 410c – solid, but not like the blistering prices seen further south, averaging 393c.

Chris Howie

Beef Central’s regular cattle markets commentator Chris Howie has been in the thick of the saleyards action this week, He said good cows that were making their 370-400c only a few weeks ago are now making 450-470c/kg. Other manufacturing types are also being dragged along.

“At Mortlake this week, a big run of bulls was making 450-460c/kg. Mt Gambier is dearer again today, topping 500c. Similar bulls last week at Barnawartha 380-410c,” Mr Howie said.

“This current price cycle is a base-level, commodity play by processors – just find as much red meat as they can to stick in a box, at whatever cost – with little regard for quality or price,” he said.

He said while processors across eastern and southern Australia were heavily reliant on northern cattle at present, once it started to heat up and mustering camps closed down for the year, northern cow supply would quickly dry up.

“Normally August-September are good months, but from the back half of October, numbers could start to disappear. For farmers in the south, cash flow is a factor with bills to play, but there’s still only modest numbers in sales this week. In a normal (non-drought) year, southern saleyards numbers by now would be starting to lift a bit,” he said.

“Having said that, cows are clearly making up a solid proportion of the southern yardings that are being presented – that’s because of price.”

Cow and bull meat being purchased as cattle this week will likely not end up in-market in the US before the start of 2026, with shipping times and accumulation.

Big processor losses being racked-up

A large NSW export processor said margin losses on slaughter cows at current rates were in the ‘hundreds of dollars a head’ – almost regardless of the freight component.

“Something has to give -it’s unsustainable at current prices,” he said.

“I’d advise anybody with cows to sell to get in now, because the market cannot continue at these rates. Don’t think about trying to add another 20kg for slaughter closer to Christmas – this market will be gone by then,” was his advice.

Already a number of southern processors have started to drop numbers and shifts, with NH Foods Wingham said to be lightening kills back to three days a week. Several plants in Victoria have also lighted off numbers per shift, and are killing only three or four days a week.

“If we are talking about the eastern half of Australia, the northern half of that area is supplying all the abattoirs across the entire region,” the processor said.

“In other words, 50pc of our supply base is presently supplying 100pc of our processing capacity,” he said.

“Sure the price of manufacturing meat for export has risen a little, but it’s only a few cents/kg. What are we missing here?”

“It’s just processors in the south desperate to secure cattle, having lifted their capacity over the past year or two.”

“Processors buying cows at these rates are in the red to the tune of hundreds and hundreds of dollars a head. Everybody (southern processors) are trying to hold kills at a certain level – say four days a week, to get them through to Christmas, when they may see more local numbers come. But it can’t go on, it’s unsustainable.”

“There’s $300 a head losses all day long for anyone buying saleyards cows at these rates,” the processor said.

• Beef Central last wrote about the surge in cow prices in this report six weeks ago, when saleyards prices hit 440c/kg.