Southern support key to success

That's the view of Elders national livestock manager Chris Howie, who told Stock & Land that due to the volume and quality of feed that persists in the south, a lot of this season's southern weaner drop will be need to be parked in the south so that long-haul specialist buyers from the north can participate.

He said the backgrounding types of specification cattle, weighing upwards 320kg, will gain some feedlot and specialty buyer interest from the north, but assistance in the form of short agistment will need to be provided in order for this to occur.

The ability for these northern orders to operate will largely depend on the set-up and provision of short term accommodation - possible for two months or longer - to make this work, he said.

Mr Howie said the availability of slaughter through the greater northern supply zone has changed with further growth in the live export trade, includes some cows being shipped to Vietnam, which has increased pressure on the processor demand, especially for cattle suiting specification.

It is these specification cattle suiting the feedlot programs and the domestic supermarket needs that will mostly be in demand, and he expects these will set the rate for sales in 2014.

The lighter opportunistic cattle however, within 280-300kg, he sees are more than likely to depend on southern competition and this support will need the interest of both large and small operators.

But the trouble here will be securing sufficient finance from major lending institutions if self funding is not an option.

Mr Howie said having the expectation that big orders will ride over the hill this year and sweep away big numbers to northern NSW and southern Qld in the initial stages will not happen and finding buyers across the full range of yardings will need to occur well before any sales are conducted.

Landmark national livestock co-ordinator Mark Barton said company clients in the north certainly had an interest in having numbers around them and if the season breaks, the pressure would be on to gather them.

But on current conditions where the season is very tight in northern NSW and southern Qld and southern NSW needs rain, that interest is certainly lower than normal.

He predicted this would put the brakes on a lot of northern activity during the early parts of southern weaner sales because in past years, with the higher freight costs, it has been a struggle to gain adequate margins from buying cattle deep in the south.