If you are contemplating selling heavy trade steers, heifers, or bullocks, you would have to take a glass half-full attitude.
But in selling younger steers and heifers, a glass half-empty attitude could be expected.
It does not matter whether you are a producer selling at a store sale, a prime market, or direct to a processor, prices for heavier steers and heifers are reasonable.
And last week’s markets indicate this to be true.
At the Ballarat store cattle sale, held last Friday, over 400 head were penned, and the heavier, better quality yearling steers sold to very strong competition for grain feeding.
These cattle sold at the highest price in liveweight price terms.
However, weaned steers were cheaper, and similar heifers were cheaper again.
Now take on board Monday’s prime sale at Pakenham, where buyers looked over the sale of 1700 head.
A good supply of top quality, heavy steers and heifers, and prime bullocks, sold to strong competition, and although prices were slightly cheaper, they still sold at good levels.
Smaller trade cattle, however, were much cheaper.
So the question is, why?
Despite there being large numbers of cattle being sold in physical sales, or direct to processors, over all of the eastern seaboard, there are limited supplies of heavy cattle.
Processors are visibly attacking store markets, buying yearling steers to grain feed, to try and beat a summer shortfall.
This is pushing store sale prices up.
In physical sales, demand is strong for the heavy steers, bullocks and heifers, with export processors competing against local processors and meat wholesalers.
Some of the strength of competition is coming from northern processors, who are coming down as far as Wagga Wagga, and Barnawartha.
This does create an onflow effect for southern sales.
However, freight costs put a limit on how far south, or how far northern processors will send stock.
Freight costs are a big factor in today’s markets.
Not so many years ago, Queensland processors would come to Gippsland and buy bullocks to send north, mostly around the Christmas period.
Another influencing factor is the change of ownership of some export abattoirs.
JBS own the Scone, NSW, abattoir, and this allows them to buy in the south and send them far north, although there are only small numbers on the move to Scone.
For processors in southern Queensland, the journey is better from Wodonga up.
One export processor said they were more concerned about supply in the autumn of 2019, than they are this summer.
So why is the trade market so poor?
Processors prefer heavier cattle, as slaughter costs are the same, and the retail market is changing fast.
It was not uncommon at both Thursday and Friday’s store cattle sales, and Monday’s fat sale, to see well-bred cattle of lighter weight sell from 200-250 cents a kilogram liveweight.
For producers looking to fatten these cattle to a premium weight, it is at least a 12-month program.
And add this to the current climate of needing hard feed cattle to gain weight quickly, and the associated costs, few producers are taking advantage of the cheaper prices.
