Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) has developed a new young cattle indicator for west Australian cattle producers.

The Western Young Cattle Indicator (WYCI) will be released weekly drawing on data from the three key cattle markets, Muchea, Mt Barker and Boyanup, reported by MLA’s market information service in WA.

MLA Manager of Market Information Ben Thomas said the new indicator will provide a direct comparison for WA producers against its equivalent in the east – the Eastern Young Cattle Indicator (EYCI).

“Our feedback from WA producers was they wanted a reliable marker of price that would be indicative of the market and could track price trends week-on-week and year-on-year, on itself.

“We took that feedback on board and have now developed the WYCI which will give producers a benchmark figure to determine the value of their cattle. By using the same parameters it can also be directly compared to the EYCI.

“This new indicator will provide WA cattle producers with a reliable indication and clearer understanding of the price movements in their market. We hope this will deliver greater confidence to producers when making livestock marketing decisions,” Mr Thomas said.

The categories of stock included in the WYCI will be the same as the EYCI, incorporating C2 and C3 yearling and vealer steers and heifers to all buyers.

The WYCI will be added to the suite of other cattle indicators already reported in WA by MLA, including feeder steer and pastoral cow indicators.

The data behind the western and eastern states’ indicators will remain separate standalone figures, in order to maintain a consistent data set for the EYCI, and make the WA markets more prominent.

MLA has been reporting markets in WA since 2002 and also reports the weekly Muchea and Katanning sheep sales.

Source: MLA. The WYCI will be accessed in various ways such as through MLA’s Market Information app or MLA’s online Market Information reports.