THERE’S been only a few changes in direct consignment slaughter cattle pricing over the past week, following a series of earlier downward corrections.

Heavy supply continues to dominate discussions, with most Queensland export processors now booked well into June, and even into July in some regions. Most are offering space bookings only for the time being, preferring to negotiate on price closer to the slaughter date.

As discussed last week, that presents some risk of ‘phantom’ bookings occurring, where a producer books space with more than one processor, hoping to cherry-pick the best offer closer to production deadline. That suggests some spots may open up again as the industry approaches mid-year.

Most recent competitive grids for kills in southern Queensland have good heavy cows on 540c/kg (the same as last week, but coming after earlier 10-20c falls) and 610-620c on four-tooth grass heavy ox. Some of those steer grids have declined 20c/kg since this time last week.

Central Queensland plants this week are generally 10-20c behind those rates.

In southern states, kill spaces are also rapidly filling up, with one plant in the eastern region of South Australia booked through to the start of July. The most recent active grid in the region had 590c/kg on best cows and 670c on four-tooth ox. Southern regions of NSW show a similar supply pressure, with cows well down at 550c/kg and grass steer 690c.

Processing volumes surge

With the clearance of the last of the sequence of holiday-shortened weeks, the seven days ended Friday (16 May) produced the largest weekly kill seen this year, and the second largest seen since 2020, hitting 152,396 head based on NLRS data.

The previous week carried the burden of a state Labour Day holiday in Queensland, keeping the national tally at a little above 143,000, and Queensland to 68,500. Prior to that, Easter and ANZAC Day hampered production capacity nationally for a month, but a run of clear weeks from now into August means processors should be able to peg-back some of the backlog in numbers that’s emerging. There’s more talk of extra shifts in coming weeks, especially in Southern and Central Queensland.

Whether this week’s forecast weather change has any effect on southern NSW/Victorian processing operations is yet to be seen.

Saleyards offerings trend down

Most saleyards offered smaller numbers early this week, with some strengthening evident in slaughter cow prices. Offerings were consistently down in size, in response to earlier price signals.

Gunnedah sale this morning produced a significantly smaller offering, with 1250 head yarded. Grown heifers sold strongly with those over 540kg to process substantially dearer 256c to 346c/kg. All cow categories were dearer, with score 2s 17c/kg better with 3s and 4s 6-8c/kg dearer, with the bulk of that category selling from 260-286c/kg.

Wodonga sale this morning yarded 1838 head, down about 20pc on last week. Grown steers and heifers were mostly lacking condition and there was a very mixed run of cows. Prime grown steers were firm selling from 330-365c/kg, cows were stronger lifting 10-12c with the heavyweights selling from 262-298c and the leaner mediumweights 180-260c/kg.

Wagga produced a much smaller yarding of 6795 yesterday, down 1800-2000 on the previous two sales. There were only a few prime grown steers and heifers and around 1500 cows were penned with prime heavy cows in reduced numbers. Grown steers and bullocks were around 10c dearer selling from 330-390c/kg but the better covered heifers eased 5-10c with most selling from 320-378c/kg. Cows were around firm on the prime heavy weights 245-290c/kg and the leaner medium weight score 2s were selling to a stronger trend on quality 194-259c/kg.

A preliminary Roma store sale report (full report tomorrow) showed an offering of 6000, down 1100 on last week. The market was firm to dearer 5-10c/kg for the better lines. A small number of bullocks made to 335c/kg. Cows were yet to sell.