A LATE surge in the Eastern Young Cattle Indicator in the past few days has produced a photo-finish in Beef Central’s incredibly popular ‘Guess the value of the EYCI by year’s end’ competition, that started back in February.

Readers at the start of the year were asked to nominate where the EYCI would sit by close of business yesterday (Monday, 2 December), with hundreds of entries flowing in from across Australia before the competition closed back on 4 March.

The EYCI yesterday closed at 646.4c/kg dressed weight equivalent – surging 10c/kg on the previous day.

Elise Mizzi

The closest competition entry among the hundreds received by Beef Central came from Sydney-based red meat industry stakeholder Elise Mizzi, whose guess of  654.83c/kg was just 8.43c shy of the mark.

Elise is head of communications with Andrews Meat Industries, a large Sydney-based beef brand program manager, exporter and value-adding company, selling high quality Australian beef to prestigious venues in Australia and across the world.

Elise expressed total surprise when told she had won the competition, saying the prize (see references below) would be a great asset during an upcoming overseas trip.

Runner-up for this year’s competition was former Queensland AgForce Cattle president Will Wilson, who guessed 657.1c/kg, 10.7c off the mark.

Queensland cattle producer Will Wilson.

Honourable mention goes to third place-getter, Rachelle Gotz, whose guess of 634.14c/kg was 12.25c/kg off the mark.

The optimists and pessimists among us meant the range of guesses in this year’s competition was enormous – the low point being 355c/kg, and the highest, 1080c/kg. The most popular choices among readers came in a range from 650-800c/kg.

The 2024 year has proven to be unusually stable for the EYCI, trading in a relatively narrow band this year between 692c/kg (28 August) and 541c (8 January) – a spread of 151c in ten months. Compare that with the 2023 year, when the range was an alarmingly volatile 436c/kg, extending from 785c to 349c at different times of year.

Elise’s prize for winning our 2024 competition is an oilskin riding coat (full length or three-quarter, winner’s choice) from high quality Australian apparel manufacturer Claybourn, western outfitters since 1910 (retail value $659). Claybourn produces a wide range of country style jackets, vests, coats, shirts, chinos and pants, caps, accessories and other gear. Click here to learn more about the colourful history of the Claybourn brand, items from which appeared on Beef Central’s trade display at Beef 2024 in May.

A bottle of Penfolds 389 Shiraz (the poor man’s Grange) goes to the runner-up, Will Wilson.

• Keep a look-out for Beef Central’s next 2025 EYCI guessing competition, starting next February.

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.