Centres such as Dubbo, Tamworth and Forbes to mention some of the majors have to forego a regular sale.

Some of the gloss has gone off the resale of cattle that arrived in our areas from interstate some 3 to 5 months ago.

A substantial percentage of the cattle were poorly bred in very plain condition and have in many cases not responded to our climate and feed condition, time to sell has arrived and some vendors are not taking a good photo. This scenario does not apply to all vendors and all cattle just enough to suggest caution after this next rain events when our thoughts turn to restocking.

The writer saw lightweight heifers at the last prime cattle selling for less than $3.00/kg liveweight.

The latest problem to face the grazing industry is the death of shearers.

One grazier in the Coolah district has listed a total of 4000 head of sheep for sale and I'm told by a mutual friend that this has been caused by the lack of shearers. Another client in South West Queensland, a dyed in the wool (excuse the pun) merino sheep man has sold the last of his sheep and now that he has feral proofed his property will go into goat production.

Here is another change in direction partially caused by the shortage of shearers within the industry.

Last week we detailed the statistics relating to Australian sheep numbers as of June 30, 2020 currently at the same starting point our beef herd is 21.142 million head and dairy cattle stand at 2.361 million.

The ABS (Aust Bureau of Stats) states that number of 25.5 million is down 20% from our most recent high point of 29.2 million which we saw in 2013.

Queensland, NSW, Victoria and the Northern Territory all recorded lower figures with the NT down 16%.

All the other states showed modest gains with the exception of Tasmania who increased their tally to 775,363 head up a tidy 17%, their highest figure since 1977.

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