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DATA generated from AuctionsPlus trading activity captures the recent momentum in cattle from drought-impacted regions of southern Australia heading north into areas blessed with some feed.

Beef Central asked AuctionsPlus this week for statistics on cattle movements out of three drought impacted regions, and a selection of more northerly buyer destinations.

The data is of course limited to online sales only, and does not reflect recent paddock or saleyards transactions, nor drought-impacted owners sending cattle north on private agistment. However it does provide a useful snapshot of what’s been going on in the last month or two.

The AuctionsPlus data we’ve requested selects three vendor areas – the NSW Riverina, Northeast Victoria and Northern Victoria – all hard-hit by drought. AuctionsPlus divides Australia into 43 regions, for the purposes of reporting. Most are in the three eastern states.

We’ve selected eight buyer areas from that list, where many cattle from those regions have been heading to.

The basis chosen to provide a benchmark comparison is the amount of transactions (percentage of all lots sold on AuctionsPlus) for each region over the past 41 months, since January 2022.

For the assessment below, we have compared that long-term figure with transactions between the same regions last month (May), and in some cases the month before (April). Here’s what we found.

Cattle from the Riverina

In the case of cattle being sold out of the Riverina, there were large spikes over historical trends in sales into more northern regions in April and May.

For example the NSW Northwest Slopes and Plains last month accounted for 22pc of all Riverina cattle sold on AuctionsPlus, and in April, 19pc. Compare that with the three-and-a-half year average in trade between those two regions of just 5.29pc. In May last year, the monthly figure was just 6pc.

The Central Western NSW region was also active in recent months as a buying location for Riverina cattle, taking 14pc of all the region’s cattle last month, and 7pc back in March. The NSW Northern Tablelands accounted for 7pc of Riverina cattle in May and 5pc in April, up from 2.7pc in the long-term average.

Signs of elevated recent sales of Riverina cattle into southern Queensland (4pc in both April and May) and western Queensland (1pc) were less significant, despite the anecdotal evidence from transport operators and others that it has been happening in the past few months. However it’s likely that Riverina sales listed as being sold to ‘Metropolitan Queensland’ (3pc) may include cattle heading into those regions last month.

The graph published on this page of recent trading patterns for cattle out of the Riverina equally shows how dry areas of southern Australia have dropped off, in terms of cattle purchasing out of the Riverina region.

Buying areas like Northeastern Victoria, NSW southwest Slopes and Plains, Northern Victoria and NSW Southern Tablelands all fell well below their long-term average for purchasing out of the Riverina region last month.

Cattle from Northeastern Victoria

Cattle relocating from Northeastern Victoria showed rises last month and in April into Central western NSW (8pc and 6pc of all the region’s cattle sold in May and April) up from an average of 3.2pc over the past three and a half years. Also showing a sharp rise was buying into the NSW northern Tablelands (8pc in May, 10pc in March), up from 2pc over the long-term average. The northwest NSW Slopes and Plains also showed some rise, accounting for 5pc of all Riverina cattle sales on A+ last month, up from the long-term average of 1.2pc. Southern Queensland sales were strong in April, reaching 9pc of all Northeastern Victorian cattle sold, but declined last month, against a basis figure of 2.21pc.

Cattle from Northern Victoria

Cattle relocating from Northern Victoria showed the largest rises into the NSW Northwest Slopes and Plains region (12pc in May, Vs 1.2pc average) and southern Queensland (13pc in April, Vs 2.5pc).

Recent cattle flow trends

AuctionsPlus Network general manager Paul Holm said the statistics clearly reflected recent cattle flow trends on the platform.

“Historically, a fairly large proportion of cattle sold from the Riverina tend to stay in the Riverina itself, as the largest destination, moving within the adjacent region,” he said. “Buyers in the Riverina still buy a lot of livestock, regardless of the seasonal conditions – partly due to feedlot activity.”

“But what we saw in April and May was much larger proportions of lots sold heading North, with 47pc of Riverina cattle heading to either the NSW Northwest Slopes and Plains, Central Western NSW, NSW northern tablelands or southern Queensland last month. That’s a significant shift in trading, by any standards – and it has happened during a period of very high turnover.”

Online offerings surged to five-year highs in early May, hitting just above 27,000 head on the week of 3 May, and only slightly less a week later.

Mr Holm said trading activity over the past couple of months clearly reflected AuctionsPlus’s ability to access buyers in a much broader footprint during dry times like this.

“May was a very large month for overall turnover, with both average lot size, and the number of lots offered increasing significantly,” he said.

Since recent rain, weekly listings have softened somewhat.