Restockers on the lookout for cattle

WHAT a week. Plenty of wind and in most cases lots of rain and I am hearing that these latest rain has helped fill the half empty dams that were desperately looking for run off. 

I am also hearing that areas that have missed out during the winter have now had rains with places like the Derwent Valley, Central Highlands, Lower Midlands and Flinders Island able to look forward to the spring. 

With most of the state looking at a good early spring the next story will revolve around what to eat the grass with. 

Many are only set up for finishing cattle while others can trade sheep and cattle. 

On the local cattle front, there is little doubt that we will be short of store cattle and this will mean prices will go up or cattle will have be sourced from over the water which will be an expensive exercise. 

Over the next few weeks there will be a number of store cattle opportunities at Powranna, Smithton and Auctions Plus so if you are looking for some grass eaters you need to keep your eyes open for opportunities. 

Lamb prices continue to hold up well with more new seasons lambs starting to arrive at interstate saleyards although there are more light and immature new lambs that we would normally expect. 

Luckily there is strong processor and restocker interest on all these lambs weighing from 14 to 20 kg carcass weight and so it is an attractive proposition to quit lambs early if their season is only average. 

On Monday at Bendigo there were 9,380 lambs and heavy new lambs are being quoted at 860c to 890c/kg carcass weight while trade and lighter are more in the 780c to 850c/kg. 

The very best made $280 while most heavy (24-28 kg) made $200 to $248 with unfinished more in the $150 to $185/head. 

There was some better news on the skin front with more being quoted in the $2 to $4 range.

Lightweight young lambs made $80 to $128 for crossbreds down to $39 for immature Dorpers.

Best quality old lambs made 800c to 860c while unfinished 720c to 780c/kg. 

Further north at Dubbo on Monday the prices were slightly cheaper than Bendigo while on Tuesday at Ballarat and Wednesday at Horsham and Hamilton the numbers were scarce with very few new lambs in these later markets yet.

And we don’t see many in our markets for another couple of months. 

I did hear that the major supermarkets are keen to switch over to new lambs and this will happen over the next couple of weeks. 

It interesting to read the NLRS market reports out of the NSW saleyards where the indication is that the trade and heavy lamb sections are dominated by Victorian processors who are obviously short of supply in that state and one could expect that to continue for a while to come.