Market Morsel: Singing in the rain

Market Morsel

The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast one of the wettest spring seasons in many years. While it doesn’t rain grass the prospect of ample pasture as we head toward the end of 2020 has got cattle producers interested in restocking. The Eastern Young Cattle Indicator (EYCI) is on route to testing 800c/kg cwt, but is it becoming too expensive to buy young cattle at these levels?

Finished steer prices have remained firm and the national heavy steer is sitting at 375c/kg lwt as at close of trade on August 19. The grass fed cattle trade matrix below shows that there is good margin in buying young cattle, even as high as 450 c/kg lwt (circa 835c/kg cwt) while the heavy steer price can stay above 350c/kg lwt.