Week Ending 9/03/2018
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Huge rain events through much of Queensland have played havoc with roads and transportation of livestock. The JBS large slaughter house at Townsville was due to re-open on Monday the 5th but due to the wet weather this has been put on hold until a date yet to be determined.
Talking dates vendors are reminded that Easter is rapidly approaching and due to the holiday period Dubbo’s sales programme is once again thrown into chaos.
There will be no prime cattle sale on Easter Thursday 29th and no sheep and Lamb sale on Easter Monday the 2nd April. The loss of these sale dates usually causes a bank-up of numbers on either side of the holidays.
With virtually no rain in the Dubbo district or anywhere to the west of here, Dubbo Agents have once again drawn for significant numbers of prime cattle for their sale on Thursday 8th March.
Early figure at the draw indicated an offering of 5945 head.
The large draw last week similar to todays draw saw the arrival of extra buying power from both Queensland and Victoria with the arrival of the rains kill figures have declined and as expected grid prices have risen.
Queensland retracted a further three per cent to 62,900 head, NSW declined to 33,500 which included a 15 per cent decline in the number of female cattle slaughtered. South Australia fell 37 per cent based on year on year figures.
Analyst suggest a further fall in slaughter numbers based on the two-short week’s around Easter and the loss of a day on the 25th April, a public holiday for Anzac Day.
As mentioned above, grids have risen, and no doubt will continue to do so.
My personal thoughts are that with the new-found buoyancy in the physical market the prices being offered for direct to works consignments do not at this stage match-up to those prices on offer in the saleyards.
For the moment cattle numbers available for processor will be light but this situation should improve as we move through the year.
If the dry had continued unabated the availability of suitable cattle for processors during the Spring would have caused much angst through their corridors of power.
Now with the advent of the rain and the above average soil temperatures many areas in a brief period of time will see unbelievable growth in pasture levels.
Thus, providing a better than average supply of prime cattle to the market as spring approaches graziers at the moment where rain has fallen are going 24/7 to sow winter fodder crops.
From all reports Coonamble Council would like to sell their existing saleyard complex, this will be a shame for the town and the district.
Having said that the local agents have struggled in recent times to muster enough numbers to entice a full field of buyers.
Having sold at the centre occasionally over the last year or three I personally felt that the centre lost nothing when compared to the major markets.