The most recent prime sheep and lamb sale at Troy Markets here in Dubbo saw lamb prices lift considerably with the official quote being a rise of between $11 and $15 per head. The agents had drawn for 27,000 lambs and 9000 grown sheep. Mutton, while selling very well, was quoted as $2 to $4 softer.
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The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released some interesting statistics on the weights being seen in beef carcases particularly in Queensland. For August the average carcase weight in the north stood at 304.8c/kg which was 15.8kg heavier than for the same month last year.
The previous record carcase weight had been set in February of this year with every month so far this year exceeding 300kg/head. Prior to this year that magic figure of 300kg had only been achieved five times since records began - the first time being in January 2005.
To put these statistics in some perspective Queensland, for the first eight months of this year, has slaughtered 18,300 fewer head of adult cattle when compared to the same period in 2010, but has produced 19,393 tonnes more.
NSW adult average carcase weights have also lifted by 13.9 per cent to average 283.1 kg/head. Although South Australia remained stable, Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania declined in production.
Nevertheless the massive figures out of NSW and Queensland allowed the national average to be the second highest figure ever recorded at 288.7kg/head a rise of 11.1kg/head.
The other interesting figure to come out of all of this was that for the month of August, Australia produced 189,815 tonnes of beef with Queensland producing 99,244 tonnes, a figure which is much more than 50 per cent of the country’s total production of processed beef.
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The good rain over a wide area and a short selling week has seen livestock numbers tighten and, with reduced supplies, prices on offer have improved with the young cattle indicator rising by 5c to finish the week at 398c/kg cwt.
For the same period the national trade lamb price rose 39c to 538c/kg cwt.
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Received a report on a store cattle held at the Nyngan saleyards on Tuesday October 11 when about 500 attractive store cattle were offered to a large gallery of buyers from a wide area of the State.
Some quotes include: Account Moody family Nyngan: cows and calves 2-3 months at foot sold from $1110 to $1330 for the seven to eight year olds. The preg-tested cows from the same consignment sold in the range of $980 to $1010.
Account Clearview Pastoral Company Nyngan: 12 Braford cows with nine calves at foot two-four weeks sold for $1125.
Account BR Richards Nyngan: Santa-Angus cross steers 14 months $740. The mothers of those steers, which had just calved again, sold to $1230.
Account WR Mitchell Cambelego: Santa Cross steers 9-11 months $610.
Account Kerry King Hermidale: Angus steers 10-12 months $640.
The sale was conducted by Lister Livestock Nyngan and Lord Dakin and Associates Dubbo. A very strong market was evident and the agents are under strong pressure from the local graziers to hold another such store sale in the near future. My thanks to Mark Garland for this report.
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