July 7, 2004

Higher Prices See Large Cattle Yardings In Australian State

In the Australian beef industry, buoyant prices prompted a yarding of 10,000 head of prime and store cattle at the Roma saleyards in western Queensland yesterday.

The big yarding was driven by three factors: feedlotters looking to supply record demand from Japan, cattlemen offloading due to the dry winter, and restockers who have had competition from the rain as well.

Kieran Kelly from the National Livestock Recording Service says prices were up by 19 cents for some categories.

"It's probably a flow through effect.

"The increased activity from feedlots has been well noted in the young cattle market, particularly for yearling and vealers.

"There's also been strong competition from restockers which has induced significant improvements to the Eastern state's young cattle indicator, which has risen 26 cents since the beginning of June to be on 358 cents."