The arrival of suckers in the market normally indicates that many of the previous drop of older lambs may be getting closer to cutting their teeth and becoming hoggets.

Graziers should pay close attention to this scenario and ensure that all lambs are carefully mouthed prior to being consigned to saleyards or abattoirs.

In many cases penalties inflicted on growers from the processor can be quite severe.

With the introduction of NLIS tags, traceability is very accurate and efficient and processors who may purchase lambs only are then left with a carcase they have no outlet for.

The old adage of ‘buyer beware’ no longer holds water in an age where consumer demands are increasing almost by the day.

We now need to guarantee our product as never before.

Dubbo had drawn for 3100 head of prime cattle last Thursday . The offering overall is one of high quality with prices to match.

Here in the Central West, roads are starting to dry out and with the very volatile market, we should flush out any available cattle.

It may be correct to assume cattle will continue to arrive as graziers decide to lock up crops for grain recovery in the next 4-6 weeks. From all reports there are a lot of cattle on crops.

On a recent trip to Brisbane via Goondiwindi, the outlook was the same.

Grass country looks ordinary and wintery, while crops looked good and seemed to have cattle wall to wall.

Maybe an idea to take from some of the big money available now and avoid the possibility of a rush later on.

Some industry news has surfaced within recent days relating to a new Brazilian beef processor establishing a foothold in Australia.

The  large Minerva Food group has bought Independent Meat Traders (IMT) a Brisbane-based beef and lamb export trading company.

The Australian push is being led by Iain Mars, a previous CEO of JBS Australia, also Brazilian-owned.

IMT will shortly change its name to Minerva Food Asia Pty Ltd, no doubt giving some indication on its direction. There is no indication yet it has plans to acquire its own  processing plant.

Minerva last calendar year processed 2.3 million cattle, generating 580,000 tonnes of beef through their 17 plants in Brazil, Paraguay Colombia and Uruguay.

Recently the home company sold 20 per cent to an Arabian sovereign fund, which is hoped will lead to much greater exposure to the Middle East market which for some time now has shown considerable interest in Minerva production.