Victorian cattle sales experience strong restocker, feedlot demand

Feedlotters have maintained a stronghold at many sales, analysts and agents say, as tight supply pushes indicators across all categories above month-ago levels.

Autumn-breaking spring rain has also added a drop of confidence to the outlook of many graziers who banked on the seasonal change.

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Meat & Livestock Australia senior market information analyst Ripley Atkinson said Queensland restockers, who had been active in feature NSW store sales in recent weeks, were also contributing to a rise in young cattle prices as northern graziers continue to rebuild herds on the back of good seasonal conditions.

"In simple terms, rainfall over Easter across the eastern seaboard has added confidence to the market and as a result we've seen the market pick up across all categories and buyers," he said.

"Prices have found some support and while supplies remain tight because of those shorter weeks, restockers, feedlots and processors have all been active in Victorian and NSW saleyards."

Mr Atkinson said the strength of the Eastern Young Cattle Indicator was due to a clash between restockers and feedlotters, with the latter forced to up the ante in recent weeks to compete with a higher price and secure demand.

"The feeder market in young cattle has picked up the strongest and in the last three weeks it's risen by 50-odd cents a kilogram carcase weight," he said.

"Buying confidence has returned to the market with feeder buyers particularly prominent as buyers compete on a reduced pool of stock."

Mr Atkinson said weekly saleyard throughput for cattle at prime sales usually fluctuated from 12,000-14,000 cattle, however, the average April weekly yarding in Victoria sat at about 9500 head.

"That means buyers need to compete more significantly to secure supply," he said.

Alex Scott & Staff Pakenham livestock manager David Setches said seasonal conditions were behind the increase in prices.

"We noticed a lot more feedlot activity at the rail last week at our sale and that contributed to a 10-12c/kg rise on feedlot-specification cattle," he said.

"We've had a decent autumn break and up until now we've lacked that farmer competition, but now the grass is growing so once people start to see the fat market solidify, we're bound to see store prices rise too."

Among the feature lines at Pakenham last Thursday was a consignment of 195 mixed-sex Angus cattle, 12-13 months, consigned by Eyton on Yarra, Healesville.

Eyton on Yarra manager Merv Steer said the steer portion sold to a top price of $1700 a head, averaging $1600, and weighed 441-323kg.

"You have to take what you get when it comes to the price but they presented well, they weighed well and after they went through a tough winter, we thought the result was quite good," he said.

"The market was up a bit on recent sales I thought, but it was nothing like last year.

"I think the market will change towards the end of May because there won't be the cattle available that there is now, particularly when some people are selling their spring 2022-drop calves already."