Cattle markets still open for business

Bob Jamieson Agencies director Bob Jamieson, Inverell, NSW, said some producers were taking advantage of cheap feed on the market, such as wheaten and barley straw, sitting between $90 to $100 a tonne.

There’s also plenty of cotton seed available and grain from harvest.

Mr Jamieson said using these cheap protein sources wasn’t necessarily to get cattle to kill weights, although some were, it was mainly for finishing their cattle for the feedlot market.

Mr Jamieson said the money was in the export feeder markets, where prices were between $3.20 a kilogram and $3.50/kg.

“There are certainly producers using cheaper feed sources to reach those markets,” he said.

Mr Jamieson said the cattle market was on a bit of a knife’s edge, with the US market coming back quickly.

An extremely dry forecast for Victoria with weaner sales coming up was also dire.

On the flipside, Mr Jamieson said there was news the monsoon in Queensland could be on time, which would be a positive for the cattle market.

Purtle Plevey Agencies stock and station agent Patrick Purtle, Tamworth, Qld, said cattle numbers had decreased recently, simply due to the time of year.

He said there hadn’t been as many kill cattle on the market due to plant closures but there had still been active buyers on the market.

Despite Christmas approaching, Mr Purtle said restockers and feedlotters were still very keen to get their hands on cattle.

“There’s still plenty of people trying to secure lightweight cattle to add weight to them,” he said. For a few months, Mr Purtle said the condition of cattle going through the yards had generally been good.

He said a lot of cattle had been booked in reaching weights of 600kg, although, that was aligned with the time of year and weaner sales hadn’t started.

Recently, some Queensland cattle had been sold through Tamworth, which would usually represent the plainer cattle in the line-ups, Mr Purtle said.