Cattle prices in WA continued to soar to extreme levels at both store and trade sales.
At Boyanup on July 3, the Nutrien Livestock store sale was the fourth consecutive sale where record prices have been set within a month, giving a true reflection of the cattle market trend now being experienced Australia-wide as demand outstrips supply.
In the sale the Nutrien Livestock team sold 1511 head of cattle for an average of $976 and a gross just shy of $1.5 million, with the yarding comprising of an even split of liveweight and appraisal cattle.
In the liveweight section of the sale Friesian and first cross feeder type steers, more than 400 kilograms, made the highlight reel selling from 240-372 cents a kilogram to average 298c/kg to be up an incredible 30c/kg on the previous sale.
The strong demand for these types saw a line of 16 Friesian steers weighing 646kg, knocked down at 318c/kg, resulting in the line claiming the sale's top price of $2053 - with many people at the sale saying they have never seen Friesian steers of that weight make those sort of liveweight values.
When it came to the beef steers and heifers in the liveweight section, weaner steers returned a top of $1589 a head and heifers $1458.
The steer offering averaged 430c/kg, to be up 5ckg and sold up to 472c/kg for a line of 10 lightweight Angus steers weighing 204kg from the Boddington area, while heifers made up to 400c/kg.
The appraisal section of the sale saw mainly lightweight Friesian and first-cross steers offered and prices generally didn't abate in these lanes either with 6-12-month-old first-cross steers making up to $945 and Friesian steers 12-15mo up to $920.
Nutrien Livestock WA livestock manager Leon Giglia said the prices being seen in the cattle market were much stronger than those achieved in 2015/16 when the market was last at its peak.
"The prices we are seeing are down to the basic economics of supply and demand," Mr Giglia said.
"There is plenty of concern in the industry at present that slaughter numbers in spring may very well be limited and this, along with Eastern States' restocker demand, is driving the store markets.
"We are seeing extremely strong demand on the stores weighing 400kg plus with buyers chasing these to put away for spring slaughter as they anticipate numbers will be short.
"The lighter store cattle, less than 300kg and our well-bred pastorals are being snapped up by Eastern States' grassland restockers.
"Overall the general enquiry from all sectors of the cattle industry for prime cattle in the spring is extremely strong, so we think these prices are sustainable for sometime."
But it is not only in store sales where producers are seeing strong prices, trade cattle sales at the Muchea Livestock Centre, Boyanup and Mt Barker have also seen extreme highs in recent months.
In terms of trade cattle prices in general they are up between 30 and 40 per cent on January when you look at last week's (week ending June 30) Meat & Livestock Australia weekly indicator report.
In the report last week the Western Young Cattle Indicator (WYCI) was at 726c/kg carcase weight (CWT), the medium steer was at 358c/kg liveweight (LWT) and medium cow 273c/kg LWT.
In comparison to the beginning of the year (week ending January 14) the WYCI is up 174c/kg or 32 per cent), the medium steer is up 84c/kg or 31pc higher and the medium cow has risen 84c/kg (44pc).
Then compared to last year the WYCI and medium steers indicators are up even more.
The WYCI is up 43pc on last year's figure of 509c/kg and the medium steer is up 49pc from 240c/kg while the medium cow is up 29pc on last year's 211c/kg.
