10 January 2014

2 minute read

Oceania

A recent cyclone brought solid rainfall to parts of the Kimberley, Pilbara and in land pastoral regions, while the lower parts of the Pilbara, Gascoyne and Murchison regions still remain in drought conditions and in need of rainfall, write MLA experts.

Conditions in southern WA are solid, as the weather remains, fine, hot and dry, with a heat wave forecast across the weekend and into the early parts of next week.

The levy board writes: with the festive period now over there has been a return to normal working conditions, with sales rosters returning to their usual formats. Physical sale numbers remained buoyant this week as the southern turnoff of cattle continues at very high levels.

Outside of the three weekly markets there were several additional regional weaner sales, while the annual regional breeder sales recommence next week, with bull early bull sales also rostered.

The majority of cattle at the saleyards this week were sourced from local agricultural districts, with more limited numbers seen from pastoral areas.

The volumes of prime trade and heavy weight steers and heifers remained only moderate in saleyards this week, with many of these now being purchased for live export contracts, as this activity remains very solid out of southern ports.

Although weaner numbers in saleyards were solid there were also good volumes of both vealer steers and heifers purchased by the live trade. Cow numbers remained solid at all three markets.

Demand from the feeder and restocker sectors for all classes of vealers remained very strong, despite the large volumes placed upon the market this week, with most sales seeing price rises throughout the classes. Demand for trade steers and heifers remains high from the local trade, with grass finished stocks dwindling and grain finished cattle yet to become fully available. Cow prices remained buoyant, while there was little change in either demand of price levels for heavy weight bulls.

TheCattleSite News Desk