HOT and dusty weather this week could sort out a few producers hanging onto fat cattle. While temperatures hover around the low to mid 30s, it is a very dry heat.
Cattle can sustain this weather if they have good water and shade, otherwise it could get a bit tricky.
Market trends have been interesting this week with trade buyers indicating that good quality cattle are becoming scarce. Prices for good quality vealers have risen across all markets, some quotes have been up to 15 cents per kilogram liveweight dearer.
Pre-weigh sales at Warragul and Wangaratta still top the state with with sales noted over 380c/kg lwt. Strong competition from small butchers are pushing this barrow.
Prices for the balance of the vealers is being driven by weight, and by restockers and feedlots. better quality, lighter weight vealers are scarce because of the good season bumping up weights. Prices for these varied from 330c to over 380c/kg with processors purchasing steer and heifer calves for grain feeding.
Likewise, there is a similar story for trade steers with prices rising to 350c/kg for a small selection. A noticeable difference has been yearling heifers with some processors preferring these over steers, due to more consistent fat cover, and quality. Prices were between 300&325c/kg for numerous D muscle heifers.
Bullocks have sold to better trends, although there have been more prime bullocks yarded this week. This may be due to JBS dropping their hook price by 20c/kg cwt at the start of the week. Having said this, the best quality bullocks sold to 323c/kg, but there were more selling between 300&315c/kg to boost averages.
The Australian Meat Group have been targeting top quality steers, weighing 565-625kgs lwt, and paying up to 320c/kg for these.
Restockers have been more cautious at the principal sales of Wagga Wagga and Wodonga, paying on average 15-20c/kg less for suitable cattle. some of this is quality driven, but the heat is the bigger influence. Some of the prices for lightweight steers remained high.
Across all markets, by far the most general trend is the drop in demand for cows. All markets have recorded price falls of 10-25c/kg. Naracoorte, which has a consistent supply of better quality beef cows recorded a top price of only 240c/kg, Tuesday. While some other markets had prices reaching 258c, these prices were few, and averages were quite a bit lower.
Not helping this scenario is the small rise in the value of the Australian Dollar against the Us currency. This market is tentative to say the least, and any chance to reduce prices is taken.
Therefore, some of the bigger price drops were for the very lean dairy cows. Heavy Friesian cows sold to 228c/kg, but mot were making between 185&215c/kg lwt.
This left those lightweight, poor quality, and poor yielding cows to the mercy of the buyers at times. More of these cows were selling from 135-175c/kg this week.
Bull prices eased back again this week, although possibly to a lesser extent than the cows. Most bulls sold from 195-270c/kg lwt.
