SALEYARD prices for young cattle are now firmly in the same territory as 2022, with the benchmark Eastern Young Cattle Indicator surging above 1000c/kg this week.

The indicating had been flirting with the 1000c mark for the past couple of weeks and had briefly crossed it during the day a couple of times. However, this week it is looking to close at 1019c/kg carcase weight.

Rain has been falling and temperatures have been mild in dry parts of New South Wales and Queensland (to a lesser extent), which appears to have slowed some numbers and brought restockers into the market.

TopX Roma principal Cyril Close told The Week in Beef podcast a lot of dry areas in Southern Queensland missed out on the last rain system and surface water is still an issue in some parts.

However, he said the recent rain in Northern NSW had boosted the market for young restocker-type cattle – with producers from further south coming up to Roma to bid on light cattle.

“There are cattle going into Coonamble, Tamworth, Dubbo and those guys have been in the market for the last couple of weeks,” he said.

“It will be interesting to see if they start coming from further afield.”

More rain forecast this week

More rain is something that might bring in buyers from further afield and the Bureau of Meteorology has significant falls forecast mainly through NSW and Victoria.

Speaking to producers in Northern New South Wales in recent weeks, the rain seems to have alleviated some surface water shortages and given a bit of optimism.

The bulk of BOM’s forecast is predicted for the central-west of the state.

Weights have dropped in recent weeks

While the market is surging for both restocker and feeder cattle, there is pressure at the processing end with uncertainty in global meat markets.

At the saleyards, both the processor cow and the heavy steer indicators have dropped in recent weeks, with the heavy steer down 6c on the past week and the processor cow down 13c on the past three weeks.

Mr Close said the average weight of the cattle going into Roma saleyards in recent weeks had dropped, which was pushing up the average c/kg.

“Three-or-four weeks ago we saw yardings of particularly heavy cattle dominating the market and the last two weeks that average weight has come back markedly,” he said.

“With that last change that went through NSW particularly, it has bought some of the buyers up here because they can buy some of those lighter cattle and fit a few more on trucks to cheapen their freight up.”

According to this week’s Blackall saleyard report, there looks to be demand for lighter weight cattle in Western Queensland as well.

“Most of the buying panel for light weight restocker steers were local or from the north west and sold to 622.2c to average 571c.”

There also appears to be demand for light cattle in Western

Competition in the cow market

While cow prices had dropped in recent weeks, Mr Close said there was still several processors from Southern NSW and Victoria actively bidding on cows at the yards and purchasing from the paddock.

“They are void of those heavier prime finished cattle because of their season is what they are telling us,” he said.

“There is very strong cross section of buyers, in the last two or three weeks I have counted between 11-12 processors in the cow market.”

Mr Close while the lighter cattle are coming through the system at the moment, he was expecting the dynamics to change in the next couple of months.

“I think we will see a lot more numbers come forward in the new financial year, I think we will see a lot more heavier cattle and kill cattle come forward,” he said.

“There will be a fair number of trucks on the road from the central-west of the state and north-west of the state where they are well and truly into their mustering period and they have plenty of good cattle with plenty of weight in them.”