A vacuum of supply combined with seasonal conditions that have put weight onto cattle continue to drive amazing trends in the prime beef market with this week setting yet another record for the Eastern Young Cattle Indicator.
Subscribe now for unlimited access to all our agricultural news
across the nation
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
'I've been getting it wrong all year so I won't make any predictions about where this market is going but this week's prime sales produced results that we haven't seen before," said Inverell livestock agent Ben Lehman.
"At Tuesday's prime sale we had a full field of buyers all wanting to go. They took whatever they wanted - fat cows, older bullocks. One six tooth Brahman cross 580kg made 393 cents as kilogram. The best cows to the processors made 324c/kg. Bulls went to 348c/kg. The majority of steers and heifers 350kg went back to the paddock or onto feed.
"It is hard to find runs of cattle and all of them have condition."
Mr Lehman said the turnaround from brown to green in the north was nothing short of remarkable.
"The country has had a break and then it has rained and no one understood how good it could respond and the cattle have followed. The weight they have put on is enormous."
With the winter cereal harvest now demanding the full attention from mixed farming operations in the north of the state and the central west, livestock agents are seeing declining cattle numbers while continued rain and a good season for growing grass almost everywhere has bumped demand from restockers.
Paul Alchin, Christie and Hood at Dubbo, says it is a tale of two markets within the prime beef space with all the glory going to lightweight weaners and heifers tested in calf as they prop up a record high Eastern young Cattle Indicator which reached 822.5c/kg (carcase weight).
"We've seen these sort of gaps between restocker and fat cattle before but never at these same levels," he said. "We've never seen it so dear."
"It's like comparing apples and oranges," he said. "It's hard to link those two quotes together.
"Ominously, we have seen producers in the past get badly burnt because by he time the restocker animal is ready for market the process price has slipped."
Mr Alchin said producers were hoping for stability and wished for prices to remain but as an agent he was advising caution.
David Thompson, Halcroft and Bennett said Friday's prime sale at Coonamble would the sixth for the district this year after a three and a half year hiatus with an expected yarding of 1200 - the majority of cattle off crop but these numbers would wind back within the next month.
"The domestic market has been strong for cattle weighing 380 to 420kg but lightweights to restockers can sell for 150c/kg dearer."
