SALEYARD prices have increased across the board this week as numbers start to steady across Southern Queensland and Northern New South Wales.

Eastern Young Cattle Indicator at the close of May 14.

All of Meat & Livestock Australia’s saleyard indicators have increased this week (except the dairy cow indicator), with the benchmark Eastern Young Cattle Indicator gaining to 23c to open today 832c/kg carcase weight. It dropped to 762c at the end of April.

The processor cow has increased 10c to 336c/kg, with the heavier end making the most, the feeder steer indicator increased 13c to 472c/kg and the heavy steer increased 10c to 440c/kg.

Numbers have started to steady after a big sell-off last month, with the national yarding closer to the average at 67,000 head this week. Early last month two weekly yardings went above 100,000 head – with yards in Tamworth, Gunnedah and Dubbo making large contributions to that number.

While the numbers are still strong at those yards, they are now starting to come down with Tamworth hosting 3958, Gunnedah 3980 and Dubbo 6100.

National Livestock Reporting Service Dubbo reporter David Monk said while numbers were down with useful rain on the forecast, dry weather was still a big feature in the market.

“Once again the sell off continues with a large percentage of the yarding consisting of cows and weaner calves,” Mr Monk said.

“There were odd pens to suit the feeders along with a few lots of well finished grown steers and heifers.”

Queensland yardings were also strong without breaking records, with 5666 at Roma and 6765 at Dalby. Both Emerald and Gracemere sales had about 1500 head.

Southern processors have reportedly been present in Qld saleyards for a couple of weeks, which has been helping push the market up. Some lotfeeders have also been buying cattle from Queensland.

Rain still on the forecast

The Bureau of Meteorology is still forecasting some rain to come into the Northern Territory, South Australia and all the eastern states across the weekend and early next week.

Some isolated showers have already fallen in North-West Queensland and in the channel country.

While widespread falls have been forecast over the next couple of days, the bureau is not predicting big falls – most of the forecast is for between 15-50mm.

Market fundamentally still strong

Speaking on The Week in Beef podcast after releasing his seasonal outlook this week, Angus Gidley-Baird said he believed the Australian cattle herd was around its peak and the next movement would likely be down.

However, he said the fundamentals underpinning the cattle market were still strong.

“The strength of the global market with a reduced volume of beef in that global space, strong demand in the US is meaning historically high import prices into places Korea and Japan and that is really driving the Australian market”

“You almost have a separation in the cattle market where you have your finished cattle prices going into that export space that are really strong from a price point of view. If you look at the last six months, they have been up around the highest prices we have seen over the past 10 years.

“Then you have your store stock prices which are closer to the year average, which is more reflective of the fact we have a very strong herd inventory at the moment and just don’t have that producer-driven restocker demand to push those prices higher.”