Cattle numbers offered through Victorian saleyards dip in 2022/23

Meat & Livestock Australia's 2022/23 saleyard survey showed NSW was the only state where there was an increase in throughput.

NSW saleyards saw total throughput increase of 7.3 per cent over the financial year, lifting from 1,163,468 head in 2021/22 to 1,248,725 head in 2022/23.

Victoria saw a 14.2pc drop in throughput, from 921,811 head to 790,530 head

It also slipped slightly to make up 22.3pc of the national tally, to run third behind NSW and Queensland on throughput.

Hamilton was the only Victorian yard - surveyed by MLA and the Australian Livestock Markets Association (ALMA) - not to experience a drop in numbers.

Episode 3 analyst Matt Dalgleish said he suspected the lack of confidence and falling markets meant producers were seeking the certainty of an 'over the hooks' price.

"There is the risk of not accepting the saleyard's price - if it's not so great - and having to transport animals back home," Mr Dalgleish said.

"There is a preference for locking something in and having more surety, rather than the unexpected."

Abattoir throughput was rising, indicating cattle appeared to be going "over the hooks", he said.

Rising prices would follow confidence in the market, but he said he felt it had bottomed out.

"I think there are some green shoots showing, we are much more competitive on export markets this year, than what we were last year," he said.

"A lot of that should start to flow through and assist the market to start to bring some support to prices."

He said the Bureau of Meteorology was also softening its language around the El Nino, predicting it might break down over summer.

"The next thing will be looking to is the autumn break and seeing what the BoM is forecasting - is the El Nino going to redevelop or are we going to have more dry conditions, transitioning into an average season?" he said.

Leongatha held onto the top spot in Victoria, despite a 20.6pc fall in cattle yardings over the year from 160,202 head to 127,241 head.

Nutrien Leongatha livestock agent Brian McCormack said the fall in throughput was likely to be due to more bullocks going directly to the works and not as many feeder steers coming through from January to July.

"It depends what the market is doing, on that side of things," Mr McCormack said.

"The feeder job had changed a lot, so blokes have run them on - the couple of years prior to that, there were a lot of people selling them at a younger age, because they were getting good money for them."

He said he didn't seen a turnaround for about four or five months, until late autumn.

Leongatha was now a central selling centre for all of Gippsland, he said.

"If you look at Gippsland, you are coming back to Pakenham, Koonwarra and Bairnsdale - Sale has fallen by the wayside - with more cattle coming Koonwarra way," Mr McCormack said.

"Even some cattle from west Gippsland are coming to Koonwarra, rather than Pakenham - it's the central yards.

"It's become more a store complex now, with prime cattle on a Wednesday, whereas five years ago it was the other way around."

Elders Korumburra and Leongatha branch manager Rohan McRae last year saw a rising market.

"If you took a price, it looked cheap against the next fortnight's sale - people were happy to go to auction, where they were pleasantly surprised," he said.

"It has been a falling market, so they are probably erring towards safety taking an on-farm, or delivered, price."

He said cattle "were out there - everyone is erring on the side of caution

"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush and they just want that bit of surety, they know what price they are getting," Mr McRae said.

"It's just the ebbs and flows of the market."

Notable falls in the top ten saleyards were at Pakenham (15.5pc) Bairnsdale (13.3pc) and Ballarat (20.6pc).

But at Hamilton, LMB Livestock & Land director Bernie Grant said when Warrnambool closed, two agents, JJ Kelly and Brian O'Halloran, started operating at the yards.

"I think the other Warranambool agents send a few cattle our way, as well, it's all due to the closure of Warrnambool, in a way," Mr Grant said.

"More cattle are probably staying locally, to be sold, because of the rising numbers."

Numbers jumped from 19,449 to 22,242, or 14.4pc.

Hamilton was primarily a prime market with weekly sales and only four store markets a year.

That meant feedlots and processors, such as Midfield, Greenhams and Teys. as well as traders were often active at the sales, Mr Grant said.

"I think we will hold those figures and they may increase a bit more, too," he said.

"The rates for selling are quite competitive at Hamilton, that helps as well."

Smaller centres were also affected by the decline.

Yea saleyards saw a 15.1pc decline, from 34,146 to 28,994, Colac was down 7.6pc, to 23,056 head and Euroa dropped 21.2pc, from 20,121 to 15,859.

Nutrien Wangaratta livestock agent Daniel Fischer, who also operates at Euroa, agreed that cattle were being held, rather than sold.

"I think hook rates have taken over from a lot of the saleyards - particularly with the downturn in the market, I think a lot of people are probably looking for a guaranteed price, instead of taking the market on," Mr Fischer said.

"The previous year the market was so buoyant that people were quite happy to go to the market and let buyers fight over the cattle.

"This year we have certainly seen people pull back from that and want to know what they are getting, before they put them on the truck."

He said he thought there had been a lot more consistency in sales, in the last six months.

"Last year people actually paid to put weight on the cattle, if they could put another 100 kilogram on their calves they could make another $500 a head - this year, they are not seeing the return, so this year I think you have seen a much more consistent sell-off from March right through until now," he said.