Easter easing
The Snapshot
- East coast cattle numbers eased 35% for the week ending 15th April.
- Queensland’s cattle yarding levels actually gained ground marginally, lifting 1%.
- Meanwhile, NSW and Victorian cattle volumes dropped by 49% and 71%, respectively.
- East coast lamb throughput declined by nearly 60%.
- East coast mutton saw similar magnitude declines to lamb with sale yard volumes easing 58% over the week.
The Detail
The Easter slump has arrived to saleyards throughput across the east coast. Cattle numbers eased 35% for the week ending 15th April with just 27,196 head reported.
Easter can arrive at different times each year so it’s not useful to compare this week to the exact week last season. However, looking at the Easter dip seen in cattle yarding last season this years decline in numbers for the week entering into Easter aren’t as severe. 2021 saw east coast cattle drop to the low 20,000 head region, 20,758 and 22,353 head to be precise.
The easing in throughput across east coast states wasn’t uniform. Queensland’s cattle yarding levels actually gained ground marginally, lifting 1% on the week to see 16,231 head presented.
Meanwhile, NSW cattle volumes dropped 49% to 7,850 and Victorian cattle yarding levels tightened significantly, dropping nearly 71% on the week prior to a meagre 2,597 head.
East coast lamb throughput declined by nearly 60%, dropping from 192,214 to 78,560 head. The low point in lamb yardings in 2021 was 121,566 so numbers presented this season, so far, are quite a bit tighter. The current lull in lamb numbers at the saleyard are 35% softer than the low seen in 2021, lets see if next week brings equally tight conditions.
NSW contributed more to the east coast decline than Victoria, in both absolute and percentage terms. NSW lamb numbers dropped by over 70,000 head or a fall of 67% to see 34,990 lambs yarded.
Victorian sale yards saw nearly 40,000 fewer lambs presented, a drop of 52% on the week, to register 35,727 head as of April 15th.
East coast mutton saw similar magnitude declines to lamb with sale yard volumes easing 58% over the week. The were 28,572 head of sheep presented at east coast sale yards, similar levels were seen in the 2021 Easter lull.
Across the two key east coast sheep producing states Victoria contributed most to the decline in sheep numbers in percentage terms, although NSW saw the bigger drop in absolute number of head.
NSW saleyards saw 15,743 sheep yarded, 18,847 fewer sheep than the week prior, representing a decline of 54%. Victorian sheep numbers dropped by nearly 64%, with 17,565 fewer sheep yarded Victorian sale yards reported just 10,276 head presented.
