Good season not enough to stop the dive in livestock prices

Whether it is store sales or prime markets, there is little joy in livestock prices at the moment as some stock are passed in.

Sheep as cheap as $20 and cattle being passed in reflect a crisis of confidence rocking the livestock industry.

Prime and store sales have shown big decreases in the past week, and Monday’s sales showed falls of more than 40c/kg for bullocks at the major centre of Wagga Wagga, NSW.

The benchmark Eastern Young Cattle Indicator closed on Monday at 640c/kg, losing 33c/kg in the past week and tracking 457c/kg, or 32 per cent lower than this time last year.

Arguably the toughest sale so far was Deniliquin’s store sheep fixture late last week, where some wethers sold as cheaply as $20.

It was tough times for the Deniliquin store sheep sale with a very small crowd at the fixture.

Vendor Ken Crossley from Deniliquin offered a line of young first-cross ewes that were passed in after bidding for the tops stalled at $178 for well-grown yearlings.

“There is just no confidence out there for sheep or cattle at the moment, that is the problem,’’ Mr Crossley said.

“The lamb job hasn’t been great and all these weather forecasts are predicting it to go dry and so everyone is uncertain about what is ahead.’’

In prime sheep markets, the trade lamb indicator closed last week at 667c/kg carcass weight, which Meat and Livestock Australia said was the lowest level since foot and mouth disease fears gripped the industry last August.

There were solid prices for some cattle at store sales last week either, but a lack of buyers saw some cattle taken home.

Action at the Wodonga store cattle sale where shirts were the bright point of the sale.

Wodonga vendor Denis Heywood from Everton offered almost 300 weaners at last week’s Wodonga cattle sale and while his steers sold up to at $1830 (400c/kg), he passed in some pens of heifers after bids failed to reach a price he was happy with.

“I am not going to sell them for this kind of money – I can find a paddock for them and take them home,” he said.

In prime cattle markets, Meat and Livestock Australian senior market information analyst Ripley Atkinson said supply was “affording buyers the luxury of choice and therefore depressing demand”.

“In line with improved on-farm supplies of young cattle, restocker demand continues to soften, despite a general autumn break for most cattle regions,” Mr Atkinson said.

“The restocker yearling steer price softened a further 16c/kg or 4.1 per cent to finish the week at 372c/kg liveweight on the back of a 23 per cent lift in supply.”