Winter hits cattle yarding quality

OVER the last few weeks we have seen some good numbers of store cattle being sold in Tasmanian saleyards and on the screen and as a result of these early numbers one has to wonder whether we will run short of store cattle going through the spring.

Last week at Powranna Elders and AWN yarded 1,160 store cattle and apart from a few good lines of well-bred yearlings it was a very wintery quality yarding and did really show how tough the winter has been on many of these cattle.

Because of the difference in breed and quality the price ranges were wide with heavy yearling steers (over 400 kg) making $1,240 to $1,850 (av. 370c/kg live), medium (330-400 kg) $1,160 to $1,600 (400c), light (200-330 kg) $840 to $1,300 and very small $580 to $900/head.

The heifers sold very well and were probably the highlight with heavy making $1,240 to $1,560 (350c), medium $920 to $1,560 (345c), light $600 to $1,120 (340c) and very small $340 to $540/head.

Buyers came from most parts of the state with most saying their season was in pretty good shape and only needed some sunshine (and less wind). 

Interstate store cattle sales have come under a bit of pressure with prices easing in most areas particularly Western Victoria where their season is pretty ordinary.

Prime markets have also shown some cheaper tendencies as numbers increase.

Export cattle are still holding up pretty well with cow prices still the highlight. 

At Wagga on Monday there were 4,570 cattle yarded but only 470 cows and as a result they sold to a very strong market with heavy cows making 310c to 339c while leaner made 264c to 310c/kg live. 

Locally at Powranna on Tuesday we saw 170 cattle which included 130 cows with most being light conditioned store types. 

The best heavy cows made 274c to 296c, leaner 220c to 270c, lighter 150c to 248c and very lean 90c to 120c/kg. 

There was strong store competition on the better bred cows with buyers seeing value in finishing cows for the export market. The US cow slaughter has fallen by over 650,000 which is 15% down on 2023.

The numbers of heifers entering feedlots has risen substantially which indicates a further shrinking of the US cow herd.

It is predicted that US beef exports will fall a further 13% in 2025 and a lot of these exports are into countries that Australia also export into.

Australian beef exports to the US have risen 69% so far in 2024. 

In the last financial year there were 14,670 cattle brought into Tasmania but 85,760 shipped out to interstate and overseas destinations. 

That is a difference of 71,090 head compared with the difference the previous year being 27,192 head and the year before that (2021-22) the difference was 58,977 head. 

To put this is perspective, the weekly Tasmanian cattle kill is about 5,200 head on average. 

I will leave it to you work the impact these latest shipments will have on our processing sector.