North closing cattle price gap

That's despite many sales at the end of last week and early this week recording bigger yardings and being dominated by yearling heifers.

The yarding at Dubbo last Thursday surged to 7100 head and according to the National Livestock Reporting Service the quality held up well even though there was the odd consignment from the far west of the State.

Dubbo cattle contributing to the EYCI calculation were on average nearly 7c/kg dearer and traded well above the eastern states average at about 610c/kg.

The supply of cattle at Wagga Wagga on Monday was also up, but the market could not sustain the dearer trend of the week before.

All up the market gave back on average 9c/kg on young cattle to settle the market at 614c/kg - still well above the EYCI.

But it's the northern markets that appear to be behind the recent EYCI price push towards 600c/kg.

Mecardo analyst Augusto Semmelroth said the northern sales were finally bridging the discount gap to their southern counterparts.

"Since August, market dynamics have reversed in favour of northern producers," Mr Semmelroth said.

"While southern EYCI cattle prices have plateaued at about 595c/kg to 605c/kg, northern young cattle prices have continued their recovery.

"Last week, the gains for northern EYCI-type cattle were in the order of 40c/kg, to reach 585c/kg.

As a result, the discount gap to southern markets has shrunk to 20c/kg and is likely to continue shrinking further towards the end of the year.