Saleyard slowdown: Why yarded numbers are down this year

The number of sheep and cattle yarded at saleyards across the east coast dropped this year. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Hamilton Regional Livestock Exchange yarded a staggering amount of lambs last week, more than 100,000. Picture: Supplied.

THE number of cattle and sheep yarded at saleyards nat­ionally dropped this year, as producers began to rebuild herds and flocks destocked during drought.

That’s according to the latest Meat and Livestock Australia saleyard survey, published last week.

It showed NSW throughput dropped 8.3 per cent in 2019-20 from 1.6 million cattle to 1.5 million.

In Victoria, saleyards in the north saw the largest drop in yarded numbers, with 1.06 million cattle passing through Victorian saleyards during the 2019-20 season, a mere 0.8 per cent drop year-on-year.

Queensland yardings dropped 3.3 per cent year-on-year to 1.3 million cattle.

The number of sheep yarded in NSW last season dropped 1.26 million to 7.29 million in 2019-20, an almost 15 per cent decline year-on-year. Regions such as Tamworth, Guyra, Inverell and Glen Innes all recorded a large drop in sheep yardings, while Wagga Wagga and West Wyalong saw a lift in numbers.

Queensland sheep yardings dropped 22.3 per cent to 88,010 sheep during 2019-20, while in Victoria total sheep throughput exceeded 4.5 million, an 11 per cent decline in numbers.

MLA manager market information Steve Bignell said the survey showed numbers were “definitely down” as Australia enters a rebuild. “This gives some clarity around that,” he said.

He said the data also showed the movement of ­cattle across states as producers worked to rebuild the ­national herd and flock.

“It’s interesting around which saleyards are the biggest saleyards,” Mr Bignell said. “There’s been Victorian cattle going into Wagga Wagga. (It) was also the preferred sheep saleyard.

“About 1.5 million sheep have come across the Nullarbor, but Dubbo and Forbes yardings are down. One would assume they’re not going through saleyards (but) going straight to farm.”

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