Drought drive south ebbs

NSW, QLD cattle head straight to processors

DROUGHT in NSW and Queensland is pushing large numbers of cattle to processors, but just small numbers are expected at Victorian saleyards.

While a wave of cattle from NSW and Queensland has been heading south, big runs of cattle have bypassed saleyards to be sold direct to the works.

The Rural Weekly understands that between 2000 and 3000 cattle a week have been spelled at properties near Deniliquin, NSW in the past couple of months.

The break in the journey was to feed and rest the stock before heading to processing works.

But agents believe the biggest surge of stock has already come, with lessening numbers easing the pressure on prices.

Elders’ Ron Rutledge said most stock had been sold.

“I feel like the numbers we have seen come south have largely already been sent, so this is like a last hurrah,” Mr Rutledge said.

“We’ve seen a high proportion of cattle coming from southern Queensland, western and northern NSW to southern processors.

“But if you fly from Mildura to Broken Hill, as I have done recently, you won’t see a lot of stock on any stations there at all — they are pretty much all gone.”

Australian Meat Industry Council chief executive Patrick Hutchinson said processors had “full books all the way up the east coast”.

“There is not a tsunami of cattle heading from the north to the south as there are plenty of cattle being processed in northern Australia as well,” Mr Hutchinson said.

He said many producers were selling down herds after the hot summer and dry autumn. There have been some cattle from drought areas in Victoria at store markets over the past month as vendors seek better prices from re-stockers.

Cattle from Goulburn, NSW, were offered at Mortlake, Westen Victoria, this month and drafts at Wodonga’s store sale last week were from Barraba and Bourke, in far western NSW with one vendor alone quitting nearly 600 cattle. Paull and Scollard’s Stephen Paull sold drought-affected cattle from northern NSW last week in the company’s store sale but said he did not believe there were large numbers on the way.

“We get the feeling that a lot of producers further north have already sold what they were going to sell,” he said.

❝There is nota tsunami of cattle heading from the north to the south — Patrick Hutchinson

PHOTO: ERICA MURREE SOUTHWARDS PUSH: Large numbers of cattle from drought affected areas in southern Queensland, western and northern NSW that have been moving directly into processors in southern states, bypassing saleyards.