WA weekly cattle summary, MLA.

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18 January 201

Weather conditions remain unfavourable

There has been little or no relief from the extreme weather conditions seen in southern WA, with much of this year’s summer recording high temperatures and wide spread thunderstorm activity. The high temperatures and thunderstorms brought further wide spread and at times heavy rainfall over a wide area of the southern Ag districts of WA. These prolonged conditions have had a detrimental effect on feed volumes and quality in both pasture and stubble paddocks. The cyclone that tracked south of the coast of WA bringing reasonable rainfall to parts of the Pilbara did little with no storm damage reported across inland regions. Despite the recent falls there continues to be a below average “wet” in the far north of the state.

Numbers remain strong in the south

With the weaner sell off at its peak in the south, there were again very large numbers of cattle sold in physical markets with consignments at Muchea lifting sharply. Buoyant had a larger trade sale, along with another weaner sale mid-week which had very solid numbers. Mt Barker had slightly lower vealer numbers; however supplies remained at the higher end of the scale. There were larger volumes of trade weight yearlings available this week with heavy steer and heifer numbers remaining tight. Cow volumes also improved at all three markets.

Buyer interest fades

This week’s sales reported lower overall weaner weights as many producers have gone through three drafts of their calves. With increased supplies recently available weaker feeder and restocker demand created lower values throughout the classes. Trade weight yearling values remained similar, while the larger volumes of cows seen in physical markets recorded a slightly increased processor demand. The higher values for heavy weight bull sales remained similar in value with little or no change realised.