More than 9000 head were yarded at today’s Virbac Weaner Sale. Photo: Tamworth Agents

AS first frosts start to set in and full working weeks return after the Easter break, national saleyard numbers have hit their highest point this year.

According to Meat & Livestock Australia’s national cattle yarding figures, more than 107,000 head were yarded last week which just eclipsed the 106,000 at the end of the last week. The large has extended on consistently large national yardings, with 409,280 head going through saleyards last month – the biggest monthly yarding in along time.

Dubbo and Tamworth both had record yardings last week with 11,200 and 7,553 head respectively. Dalby had a big yarding with 9000 head and Gunnedah had 7200 head.

Northern New South Wales has largely been responsible for the big sell off, with barely any rain falling this summer, frosts now starting to set in and a feeling that if it does rain it will only boost morale.

The dry conditions were big topics of conversation at both the Beef Up forum in Morven and the Wagyu conference in Brisbane – with plenty of talk about the lack of appetite to feed cattle in a strong market and the amount of full cattle trucks heading west towards areas like Longreach and Winton.

MLA market information analyst Alex Fry last week took a deeper dive into the Northern NSW yardings, finding that the five main saleyards had seen their highest throughput since in 20 years.

“Combined year‑to‑date throughput across Tamworth, Gunnedah, Inverell, Armidale, Scone and Dubbo has reached 241,007 head,” he said in his article on the MLA website.

“This is the highest volume recorded for the same period since 2005, exceeding the next highest totals recorded in 2018 (205,208 head) and 2015 (197,487 head).”

Mr Fry said that that Tamworth’s top six yardings have all been in the past six sales and the top six yardings for Gunnedah were all from March 2026 onwards.

Parts of Qld also seeing dry conditions

Speaking at the Dalby saleyards last week, Nurtien agent Terry Ryan said the season had been mixed in Southern Qld.

“If you take a line along the Warrego Highway, north of there has been really good with early beneficial rain,” Mr Ryan said.

“South of the highway has been a very tough season overall, there has been no end of the year rain or no early rain.

“Our numbers have been raising every week. Easter week we normally yard 2500 cattle, this year we yarded 8000.”

How are prices reacting?

Looking at the main saleyard indicators most price categories have tracked sideways in the past week.

The Eastern Young Cattle Indicator opened this week at 802c/kg carcase weight – similar levels to what it opened April. The Feeder Steer Indicator is also similar to the start of the month at 456c/kg.

The only category to drop is the processor cow indicator, which dropped 6c last week to 323c/kg.

Processor cows have been one of the stronger categories over the past year, with processors from Southern NSW and Victoria bidding up in Qld and Northern NSW saleyards to keep their chains running.

While the freight bill has become a consideration in that market, there is a feeling that the northern saleyards will still be needed for volume. The processor cow is also sensitive to weight, with a preference for heavier cattle – as the name of the game is filling boxes.

• Check today’s AuctionsPlus report which has followed a similar trend