Markets

Saleyard indicators start 2025 with a spike after Qld rain

Eric Barker 13/01/2025

NATIONAL saleyard indicators have spiked to start this year, with the benchmark Eastern Young Cattle Indicator going above 700c/kg carcase weight.

The EYCI opened this week at 705c before going down to 694c at the conclusion of today’s Tamworth and Wagga Wagga sales.

With the market starting out stronger this year, numbers have started to come forward to the early sales this week.

Tamworth’s yarding increased by 2845 head to 3645 and Wagga increased by 3675 head to 6110. Roma has 5283 head booked in for its first sale of the year tomorrow.

According to the National Livestock Reporting Service report on today’s Tamworth sale, the market was still strong with the extra numbers.

“The high demand for cattle was evident through the market with most trends through the young cattle firm to dearer. This despite the significant increase in supply,” the report said.

“Light weight steers to restockers posted strong gains. Strong feedlot and restocker competition on the medium and heavy weight yearling heifers resulted in dearer trends of 5c to 9c/kg.”

The Wagga report noted prices dropping 20-30c/kg with most buyers not operating at full capacity.

Large of parts of Queensland and New South Wales have seen significant rainfall totals in the past month – with some areas receiving more than 100mm in the past week.

Producers from both areas have been a strong presence at the start of the Victorian weaner sales.

Similar to last year, early sales have demonstrated a price disparity between the south and north. Dalby was the only Qld yard to hold a sale last week, with restocker steers averaging 443c/kg.

Market reports from both Grant, Daniel & Long and Eastern Rural both pointed out that quotes for heavier cattle were hard to give due to a lack of numbers.

  • Beef Central will have a closer look at the Victorian weaner sales in the coming days.

 

About the EYCI

The Eastern Young Cattle Indicator (EYCI) is the Australian beef industry’s most widely used cattle market indicator. It is calculated based on a seven-day rolling average of young cattle prices (vealer and yearling heifers and steers 200-400kg liveweight, scores C2 and C3) from 23 saleyards across Queensland, NSW and Victoria. It is expressed in c/kg carcase weight.

At any point in time, a seven-day rolling average includes data from the past seven calendar days. In the case of the EYCI, the dataset takes the average ¢/kg cwt of an animal matching the specifications of the indicator per day for the past week, adds them up and divides the figure by seven. The indicator is updated daily to create a rolling average value for this specification of animal.

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