Buyers are cherry-picking the best breeding females

Back at the start of December 2022, we outlined our expectations for a surge in PTIC heifer listings in early 2023. The driving factors behind that expectation were the high soil moisture and abundance of pasture available, allowing vendors to retain large numbers of heifers on farm and join in Spring 2022. Declining prices were also expected to motivate vendors to retain maiden heifers that they would have otherwise sold, and join them to sell as PTIC instead to value-add.

Key points

• Buyers are selectively cherry-picking breeding females for final additions to herds.

• Reduced trading activity is influencing lower PTIC heifer listings.

• PTIC cow listings expected to peak in May and June.

However, the decline in prices has continued instead of flattening out like many expected (Figure 1). While the seasonal pattern of PTIC heifer listings has occurred as expected, overall listings are lower. A total of 12,684 head of PTIC heifers were offered in March, just short of March 2021 and 2022, as vendors considered their options in a very different trading environment.

The behaviour of buyers when it comes to breeding lines in the first four months of 2023 could be better described as cherry picking. While high quality articles were able to secure top prices, competition amongst buyers was low and standing out from the crowd has become more difficult. Producers have all but completed their herd rebuilding, putting more emphasis on quality in any final breeders to add to the herd.

Figure 1: AuctionsPlus PTIC heifer offerings and prices

PTIC cow listings are also following their seasonal pattern and are expected to peak this month. We have already seen 2,252 head offered in the first week of May for an average $1,981/head. More are expected to be offered on The Box in the coming weeks as breeders finalise stocking numbers for the year ahead and list excess pregnant females on AuctionsPlus. 

Figure 2: AuctionsPlus PTIC cow offerings and prices