TOUGHER trading conditions in prime markets are wiping big money from store sales.
Both sheep and cattle markets have been hit hard in the past fortnight as farmers re-evaluate options amid the uncertainty of export meat sales and the season.
Hot weather and drying paddocks are partly to blame for the fall in buyer confidence, but it is the corrections for heavy lambs, mutton sheep and bullocks that have had the greatest effect on store values.
In the past fortnight, values for first-cross ewe lambs have fallen by at least another $20 a head, while some grades of store cattle are up to $100 cheaper than their pre-Christmas market highs.
Bega's store cattle sale in southern NSW last week was one of the casualties, with agent Stewart Smith, of Chester & Smith, quoting the market as up to $100 easier.
"We depend on South Gippsland to buy up to 90 per cent of our cattle, and they simply weren't at the sale," he said.
"A couple of weeks of tough prices in the bullock market, where values fell to 175c/kg liveweight, and everyone pulls their horns in."
It was a similar tough time at Warrnambool's store market last week, where competition was described as lacklustre. At that sale, values for steer weaners were down 5-10c/kg liveweight.
Many of the major prime cattle markets were much cheaper last week, and figures point to subdued export beef sales.
In the first 20 days of January, Australian processors shipped out only about 26,000 tonnes of beef.
Meat and Livestock Australia says this meant the industry could record "one of its lowest export months in recent history".
Processors say the tough beef market is down to several factors, with the climbing Australian dollar being touted as a big problem by exporters trying to trade into depressed global markets.
On the domestic front, abattoir operator and meat wholesaler Robert Radford said a combination of short trading weeks and hot weather had taken a toll on sales.
"Short trading weeks (such as last week with the Australia Day public holiday) are very frustrating for the meat industry as it is a lost day of trading that you can never seem to make up," he said.
"Demand for beef has been very soft, especially in the past fortnight, and there has been a lot of discounting (by wholesalers) to try and get rid of product and that has snowballed into a bit of a bunfight."
However, this week's rain is expected to bolster cattle sales as numbers are pulled off the market, especially in Queensland.
"I would think that this rain would have a flow-on effect, and vealers today are being quoted as dearer out of Pakenham and I think prices for the good (slaughter) calves will hold up," Mr Radford said.
