Prime cattle job on the improve

A BIT more rain statewide and I am hearing that for the first time this winter some are reporting run-off while others are still saying there is none and that in turn means the sub-soil is yet to be we.

Certainly there are parts of the state that are shaping towards a promising early spring while most of the rest is probably only one decent rain away. 

Over the water, and from the middle of NSW through to most of Queensland the season appears to be assured while big producing areas like Western Victoria are still desperately in need of more rain.

 Some commentary on the beef market that I read during the week indicated that the good season up north will provide good numbers of cattle for the spring but this will be compensated by the dry areas like Victoria, South Australia and Southern NSW.

This sort of commentary flows through to the discussion on when we will see any decent numbers of new season lambs.

 And the predictions seem to be that it won’t be until the beginning of October which is close to a month later than most years and this is because the early producing areas of Northern Victoria and the Riverina have had a very dry autumn and winter. 

The season further north is good and at Forbes this week there were 2,400 new lambs and we saw these lambs (weighing from 18-26 kg) make $185 to $235 or 890c to 920c/kg carcass weight.

 At Bendigo on Monday we saw the first of the new lambs and they will continue to drift in over the next weeks, it will be just interesting to see how quickly the numbers increase.

At the time of writing we haven’t seen the results of the Wagga sheep and lamb sale, but the market reports from Wednesday’s sales a Hamilton and Horsham showed stronger markets which may mean the recent price corrections may have run their course. We will know next week.

On a different subject, store cattle sales in Victoria have seen some significant increases over the last few weeks with well bred feeder steers making 400c/kg live and in particularly for cattle over 400kg while medium weight steers are more in the 350c to 400c/kg range and then lighter (200-280kg) topping around 470c and averaging 410c/kg live. 

Most heifers are averaging 300c to 340c/kg. 

In all these markets there is very strong feeder competition coupled with competition from NSW restockers. This all goes well to putting more confidence into the general prime cattle job.

Mixed lamb quality at Powranna

THERE was a slightly larger yarding of 1,296 lambs (142 more) at Powranna on Tuesday with quality very mixed. 

The market for well finished lambs was $8 to $17 higher while light lambs were cheaper.

 The few heavy pens made $234 to $244, trade $160 to $230, light trade $102 to $164 and light MK lambs $40 to $82/head.

 Restockers paid $70 to $100 for the best and $12 to $18 for very small lambs. There was a smaller number of 918 mutton (146 less) and apart from extra heavy sheep the rest regained most of last week’s losses. Extra heavy pens made $85 to $110, heavy $122 to $128, medium $70 to $126, light $60 to $84 and very light one score sheep $24 to $32/head.

THERE was a small yarding of 43 cattle with quality very mixed. Most met a stronger market with the best yearlings making 270c to 292c with leaner heifers 220c to 260c/kg. 

The few growth steers sold for 240c to 288c with quality very average. 

The few cows sold to a better market with the heavy beef pens making 240c to 244c, medium 236c to 260c and light D1 cows 138c to 176c/kg liveweight.