As part of its weekly cattle market reporting service, AuctionsPlus’ Insights team analyses and publishes a table of prices and clearance rates specifically for Queensland offered cattle. Last week’s Queensland offering of 2,087 head almost achieved an extremely rare event, falling just short of a “perfect score” with just 1 lot of PTIC cows not selling. With an overall clearance of 97% and 10-out-of-11 categories reaching a “perfect” 100% clearance, it was a unique week for the Queensland cattle market (Table 1).

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The 2021-22 (FY22) financial year was a period of major herd rebuilding for the Queensland cattle industry. Analysis of AuctionsPl...
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There are clear indications of the desire to rebuild herds through Queensland.
Heifers and breeding cows accounted for 59% of listings across the quarter, with 136,570 head, while steer listings accounted for 35%, with 82,536 head.
In the first two weeks of August, weekly commercial cattle prices have shown signs that the winter chill has thawed, as buyers targeted the lower prices as an opportunity to step in and buy – pushing clearance rates up to 94% with average final sale values reaching $213/head over reserve.
If there was a growing sentiment of cautiousness in the cattle market throughout July, someone forgot to tell bull buyers.
The recent decline in the national cattle market has been substantial in the value of cents wiped off the benchmark EYCI.
The volume of Tasmanian livestock offered through AuctionsPlus during the past year has increased significantly, as vendors continue to see the benefits of the wider audience bought by the national platform.
The 2021-22 financial year was one of record prices for commercial cattle on AuctionsPlus. Milder summer conditions paired with ongoing pasture growth, spurred the desire of cattle producers to continue rebuilding herds - which subsequently pushed prices to all-time highs in January 2022.
The recent run of wet years and significantly understocked paddocks since the start of 2020 has been clearly reflected in the turnoff weight of cattle through AuctionsPlus commercial cattle sales.
With breeding cattle in hot demand, the price movements and premiums across the “proven breeding” lines has been interesting to watch.

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