Earlier in the week, we looked at lamb prices in deflated terms, and they are indeed near record highs. We know that export markets are helping drive lamb prices, so it’s worth assessing whether lamb importers are also forking out record dollars for lamb. When I...
There was a lot of talk back at the end of May around the slaughter of 150,000 New Zealand Dairy Cows, and how it might impact manufacturing beef markets. With NZ’s seasonal cow slaughter peak now behind us, we take a look at whether how...
A surge in cattle yardings in Queensland this week encouraged the broader East coast yarding levels higher. However, the increased supply at the sale yard is doing little to dampen buyer interest as all categories of East coast cattle indicators, other than the EYCI, managed...
In this week’s comment, we take a look at the decline of the European crop and the impact on pricing. At a local level, we provide observations on the Australian crop from some of our travels around the nation. The futures market has largely traded sideways...
This time last year lamb prices were great, sitting north of 600¢ at record highs. Who would believe prices a year later could be more than 100¢ higher? It seems unbelievable, and still, we have slaughter higher than this time last year. Lamb prices have continued...
We’ve fielded some queries this week as to when sucker lambs might hit the market. One option is to lot-feed lambs to get them finished quickly. This week we crunch the numbers on feeding lambs and see if there is money in it, or if...
Processor margins have increased dramatically in this last quarter, sitting significantly higher that historical averages. The large margins have been linked with the low rainfall patterns that have occurred this year. Similar conditions were seen 2013 and if that is anything to go on the...
The restocker lamb discount in NSW has reached new lows in recent weeks. Store lambs are likely to remain relatively cheap if it doesn’t rain, finished lamb prices should remain strong. A good rain will boost store lamb prices in the short term, and...
Last week it was young cattle prices on the rise, this week its supply. Young cattle yardings jumped higher as growers took the opportunity provided by higher prices to offload more cattle. We think it was the higher prices, or perhaps the fact that there has...
Lamb and sheep markets have hit some solid resistance at the 730¢ and 520¢ mark respectively. There are plenty of reports of processors cutting shifts and slowing production rather than competing harder for lambs. The latest three month forecast doesn’t suggest the supply of finished...