Female cattle slaughter hits highest level in a decade as drought forces sell-off

Female cattle kill rates have reached decade-high levels driven by drought conditions. See what it means for producers.

The kill rate for female cattle is at the highest levels since 2015 with eastern states farmers embarking on a drought-induced sell-off.

Major selling centres hit record numbers this week as both Mortlake and Wagga Wagga, NSW, moved into uncharted territory, and a large number of females headed direct to processors.

Meat and Livestock Australia national market information manager Stephen Bignell said slaughter throughput through saleyards was higher than in previous years.

“The week of April 11 represented the week with the highest volume of slaughter females going through saleyards since April 17, 2015,” Mr Bignell said.

Mr Bignell said the biggest category to be purchased by processors from saleyards was cows with a total of 11,211 going under the hammer last week.

This was more than double the rate for weaner steers, which was the second highest category, at 5083.

Despite concerns from the industry that pregnancy-tested-in-calf females were going to slaughter this number was considered small for the week at just 118.

“What we are seeing is a two-speed market, there is still demand in the north and areas that have had rain from ex-cyclone Alfred,” he said.

That gave some confidence for producers in the north to rebuild and consider purchasing females from southern regions including Victoria and South Australia.

Victorian Farmers Federation livestock group president Scott Young of Ballan. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Victorian Farmers Federation livestock group president Scott Young from Ballan said the silver lining was the fact prices were reasonable and there were still good margins at the moment for producers who were selling stock.

“The fact that they have rain in northern NSW and Queensland is good for the market, and there has been demand to reflect that,” he said.

The biggest hurdle in the dry parts of Victoria and South Australia was in sourcing fodder and also ensuring available stock water with dams getting lower every day.

“We are experiencing really challenging weather conditions and producers are making decisions (to destock) early,” he said.

On Wednesday the benchmark Eastern States Young Cattle Indicator settled at 704.40c/kg carcass weight showing a fall of just 11.34c/kg for the week from the sale of 19,103 cattle.

However, for Victoria there was a sharp decline of 29.13c/kg in the past seven days with the indicator currently at 674.32c/kg.

The National Young Cattle Indicator, calculated off a headcount of 34,668 was at 379.06c/kg liveweight on Wednesday and fell just 2.23c/kg in the past week.

After a record cattle sale at Wagga Wagga on Monday with 8731 cattle sold, an additional store sale featuring 3542 will also be held on Friday to further support the seasonal sell-off.

There will be 1650 steers, 1650 heifers, 100 PTIC females and 100 cows and calves.

Tyler Pendergast of Wagga Regional Livestock Agents said his family was selling their entire 2024-drop of weaner heifers on Friday, with 140 total aged between six and nine months.

“The decision is pretty easy, the prices are good. We’re going to get the same money for our heifer weaners as to what we got for our feeders 18 months ago,” he said.

“When they drive out a gate it’s a relief when they’re gone that you’ll get a decent return.”

He said the feeder heifers made about $1000 18 months ago, and he expected the lead weaner pens to match.

“My dad is 70-odd and he hasn’t seen it as bad coming into the end of autumn and into winter,” Mr Pendergast said.