As eastern Australia registered another damp and gloomy autumn, with another wet winter on the cards, a large swathe of South Australia experienced a later than usual autumn break – which is set to impact feed supplies and stock numbers into the second half of the year. With the drier start to the year, commercial cattle, sheep and lamb numbers through AuctionsPlus out of SA so far in 2022 have hit record highs, underpinned by a large flow of stock interstate.
Reviewing online listings since 2018, South Australian based offerings through AuctionsPlus traditionally peak towards the back end of the year. In 2022, the run of cattle continued into the first quarter of this year - a result of the poorer local seasonal conditions and red-hot demand from the eastern seaboard. During January, NSW buyers purchased upwards of 80% of SA weaner sales. So far in 2022, there has been 255,327 head of sheep and 29,200 head of cattle offered online from SA – up 13% and 37% on the same period last year, respectively.
Evaluating listing regions for SA, the largest increase for both sheep and cattle in 2022 so far has been out of the Lower Southeast region of SA (Table 1 and 2). Sheep listings for the region have increased 64% on the same period year, at 74,224 head, while 17,591 head of cattle have been listed, up 80% on last year.
The competition for SA stock has been incredibly strong, largely from interstate buyers. Sheep categories that have dominated listings to date include Merino wether lambs, crossbred lambs and SIL Merino ewes. Merino wether lambs have registered the largest increase in offerings to date, at 63,057 head - up 52% on the same period last year. SA cattle categories in 2022 have been dominated by PTIC cows and steers, especially the 280-330kg steer lines, with 3,172 head offered - up 47% on the same period last year.
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s
