Key points:
- There was a strong supply of cattle this week, with the third largest yarding in the past 12 months.
- All markets softened on month-ago prices, though opened the year 65–75¢ above 2024 open prices.
- Goat slaughter reached a new weekly record of 76,459 head.
Cattle market
The cattle market started strong in the first full week of sales. There was a good supply (87,782 head), making it the largest yarding since April 2024 and the third largest yarding in the past 12 months.
All indicators have started the year above where they finished in 2024. Premiums for restocker steers were firm at 411¢/kg liveweight, 33¢ above feeder steers at 378¢/kg lwt, and 59¢ above heavies at 352¢/kg lwt. Restocker heifers mimicked steers, maintaining the growth seen on the tail end of last year, opening the year at 411.35¢/kg carcase weight.
Processor cow prices remained relatively stable at 293¢/kg lwt. However, the small increase in price takes the indicator back to 2023 prices (its highest in two years). This came as the US 90 CL import price reached records.
Sheep market
After an incredible end to 2024, the sheep markets had a softer start to the new year. Yardings in the first week of sales of the year were strong for an opening market with 292,079 lambs and 121,479 sheep for a combined 413,558, making it the third largest yarding of the year. This week, yardings tipped back, likely due to the softer market with 200,041 lambs and 125,240 sheep for a combined 325,281 head.
The National Heavy Lamb Indicator finished the week at 815¢/kg cwt. The premium of heavy lambs over trade lambs has shortened to 16¢ with the Trade Lamb Indicator coming in at 799¢/kg lwt. Light and restocker lambs remained on par at 729¢/kg cwt and 713¢/kg cwt, respectively, with mutton prices coming in at 367¢/kg cwt.
Despite a softening over the past month, all indicators remained 65–75¢ firmer than the opening markets of 2024.
Slaughter
Week ending 10 January 2025
Processing has started the year strong. With most processors operating again, impressive processor numbers were seen. Goat slaughter reached a new record of 76,459 head over the week.
Cattle slaughter was at 108,547 head, 23% or 20,000 head above where it started in week two of 2024, though it remained level with the weekly throughput in the last full week of the year. Most states lifted on year-ago reported numbers between 2–31%, though WA did fall 25% on year-ago levels and 13% below the last week of 2024 at 2,551 head. NSW was the only state to process considerably more than in the last full week of processing in 2024, with 32,260 head over the week. Importantly, some plants across Queensland remained closed, which impacted numbers.
Lamb slaughter remained strong, processing 470,713 head – on par with the final processing weeks of 2024. This figure is 9% above where plants were operating at the same time last year. Most sheep-producing states were within 10% of the previous year's levels. WA, however, was up 46% year-on-year, which supported national numbers.
After the huge throughput seen at the tail end of last year, sheep slaughter tipped back across sheep-producing states with a total mutton kill of 196,372 over the week. However, a year-on-year lift of 34% on both NSW (85,742) and WA (31,810) is promising, considering combined slaughter remained flat at the end of 2024 and above year-ago figures with a total slaughter of 667,085 head over the week.
Attribute to: Erin Lukey, MLA Senior Market Information Analyst
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