The north-south divide is opening up again for young cattle

The Eastern Young Cattle Indicator fell more than 50¢/kg for the week to 911¢/kg, pushed lower by a large yarding at Roma, Queensland, making up about a third of the throughput, and that sale quoted as 15¢/kg to 30¢/kg down right across the board despite all regular buyers plus an extra one from the south operating. Dalby, Qld, had the second-largest yarding and also sat below the overall EYCI, which caused young cattle to average 859¢/kg in Queensland. Comparatively NSW was well above the EYCI at 965¢/kg, with Wagga Wagga having the largest yarding and averaging 1029¢/kg for young cattle.

Restockers suffered the biggest downward momentum over the past week despite also having the biggest drop in throughput numbers, with heifers and steers falling 43¢/kg and 53¢/kg respectively. This brought the national restocker heifer price to 380¢/kg, which is an 11¢/kg discount to the same time last year. This is still just above the short-term average, and 20% higher than the 10-year figure. Roma had more than 40% of the restocker heifer eligible stock and actually averaged above the national price at 396¢/kg. The six top restocker heifer yardings were in Queensland. Half of the restocker steers came out of Roma, and again it averaged above the national price.

Cattle slaughter consistently trended below year-ago levels throughout July and the past week was no different, being down nearly 6% year-on-year. This week’s yardings were the lowest since the first week in July, sitting just below Meat and Livestock Australia’s rolling three-year average at 67,153 head. Monthly yarding totals have been sitting above that average since February, with only three months in the past 19 sitting below it.

Cows and feeder steers showed the most resilience, both with dips of less than 10¢/kg. The US 90CL imported lean beef price continued its downward trajectory last week as well, falling to its lowest level since October last year. The national processor cow price, however, is still trading at historically strong prices. It’s only about 2¢/kg above year-ago levels, but nearly 30% above the five-year average. It has also only slipped 11¢/kg in the past month, compared to all other major indicators which are down 30¢/kg to 95¢/kg.

As Angus Brown took a look at in his article this week, the weather for the next three months is forecast by BOM to be on the drier side, right down the east coast.