The Australia day long weekend had an affect on markets due to reduced yardings at sales leading up to the public holiday.
While most prime markets were smaller, due to the drought and now a lack of water resulted in a yarding spike of 30 per cent Bairnsdale fat cattle sale – an anomaly for this market prior to a public holiday.
With extreme temperatures seen across all of Victoria in the last week, supply at Colac fat cattle market on Thursday consisted of only 77 head while Shepparton was slightly larger, selling 60 head more.
The biggest driver of supply was the much cheaper prices of the previous week, not the temperature.
Also affecting the supply at fat cattle markets, is the large number of good quality steers, heifers, and young cattle, that are being sold in store markets.
Meat & Lviestock Australia forecast finished cattle to be strong this year, given the fact demand fundamentals remain strong, and supply of quality slaughter cattle will remain tight.
As pastures are yet to establish in most regions, and an immediate alleviation in high grain prices is not expected, heavy cattle could potentially remain undersupplied well into 2019.
But the supply of fewer cattle in Tuesday’s fat cattle sales did very little to improve demand. At most sales for the week, prices were at best firm, and many classes of cattle were cheaper again.
Narracoorte’s Tuesday market was the worst of the four major sales reported by MLA. The offering of 301 beef cows sold from 100 to 195c/kg.
At Narracoorte, Tuesday, MLA recorded 116 C3 yearling heifers, weighing over 400 kilograms, which is the more preferred weight range, only making between 200 and 260 cents a kilogram live weight.
While other markets were better than this, they were not much better overall. A reasonable price range for yearling heifers was 225-275c/kg lwt.
What showed up as a big change to supply after the previous week’s slump, was the decline in bullock numbers.
This did not alter demand at all with prime bullocks being unchanged to another 10c/kg cheaper.
Most prime C muscle, 3 and 4 score bullocks sold between 225 and 278c/kg, with both of these prices being the extreme at each end of the range.
Prices for lighter bullocks and yearling steers, weighing from 500 to 600kgs, did improve marginally with most making 255-283c/kg lwt.
The supply of cows may have fallen, partly due to the public holiday, but processors had that day off too, and demand was no better.
