Market overcomes monster July yardings

Young cattle prices took the stairs in July (Figure 1) improving 15% for the month and are now sitting 91¢ higher at the finish of this week compared to the start of July. Although this week’s price rise was modest at 15 cents from the previous week, it occurred amidst a slightly less intense buying group compared to recent weeks. Despite this, saleyard reports noted strong markets in Roma for heavier weaner cattle.

Whilst the praises have been sung for cow markets for much of this year and will continue to be sung for the run-up to Spring there was a slight easing this week.  The National Processor Cow Indicator was down 3¢ to 275¢/kg lwt despite lower throughput.  With the 90CL pushing higher again last week, the appetite for cows is still expected to remain strong for some time.

This July has seen a rush of supply for a typically tight time of year as producers looked to cash in on the winter price rally which had eluded the trade for most of June. This is evident in the NLRS yarding figures for July which exceeded 289K head nationally. This was 35% above the 5-year average, and 54% above the July figure in 2023 and was just 997 head off the numbers seen during the liquidation in 2019.   

The divergence in seasons earlier in the year has created an imbalance of where cattle can be sourced.  The push North from buyers to access heavier cattle reveals to us that there isn’t enough cattle that meet buyer needs down South, a trend which is more likely than not to persist into Spring.

Processors are still keeping busy, as national cattle slaughter last week was 15% higher than the same week last year at 139K head.