At times, I feel jealous of my counterparts writing about the livestock and wool markets. They always seem to have something positive to comment on with markets driving higher. However, markets are cyclical and things can change quickly. The futures market has subsided (figure 1)...
There is an old Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times”, used ironically to suggest that uninteresting times are more life enhancing than interesting ones. It seems our friend Donald, would like to consign us to a lifetime of interesting times. After experiencing strong momentum...
The rainfall was better than expected, but the impact on price was about right. This week east coast rainfall saw lamb prices move back to a one month high, while mutton jumped to what is very nearly a new record. In the west prices corrected,...
If you read agricultural news websites, or even listen to the ABC’s country hour, you will be aware of the beef ‘scandal’, which has hit Brazil this week. The reasons behind the scandal have been well documented, so we won’t repeat them here. What we...
There were good reasons for cattle prices to rise this week. Demand was up, from restocking and processing sectors, while supply was down. There were two main reasons, widespread rainfall, and the good old ‘black swan’, which flew in from Brazil. In reality the widespread east...
A bit of a mixed market this week with the very fine end still surging forward but some beginning whispers of nervousness among exporters at the auctions this week starting to creep in, although this may begin to be eased by a softening A$. The...
Another interesting week in the markets this week. The grain markets lost some ground, before regaining their losses. The US fed increased interest rates for the 2nd time in three months, however the impact on the A$ was not as expected due to less hawkish...
Broadly stable national markets evident this week for most categories of cattle as a combination of lower throughput and slightly higher beef export prices put a base under the market. National trade steers the leader, given a boost by the southern states to post a...
Regular readers will know that when we talk about lamb markets, we use the Eastern States Trade Lamb Indicator (ESTLI) as a base for our analysis. The regular reporting and widespread coverage of the ESTLI make it a reliable gauge for the level and direction...
Lamb markets seem to have found some sort of level where buyers and sellers are happy, with prices largely steady this week in the east. In the West the lambs were the most expensive in the country. Supply was back this week on the east coast,...