Strong competition for prime cows driven by dampened supply

At Forbes Scott Reid, VC Reid and Sons, said good trade cattle and heavy cattle sold well at their prime sale on Monday.

Mr Reid said the fat cattle market is very strong, along with the feeder job, and said cows were five cents dearer.

"Your best cows are making around 420c/kg which is unbelievable for an old cow," he said.

Mr Reid said the cow prices were pushed up by demand from the export trade for grinding beef, as well as less supply.

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"There must be very good enquiry for that because they just seem to stay up around that money," he said.

"It's got a lot to do with supply too - there's not a big supply at the moment and with all the wet weather that's around there's less supply than normal."

Mr Reid said moving forward the market would be reliant on the weather, with more wet weather to keep numbers low and hold prices steady.

"At some stage it's going to clear up and there'll be a few more cattle come on the market," he said.

"Most of the cattle that will come on the market will have a bit of weight about them and be pretty good and that might have a dampening effect on the prices a bit later on, but then you'll have the restockers competing with the feeders and the prime blokes.

"The cattle job looks pretty good for the near future."

At Moss Vale Jim Hindmarsh and Son agent Ben Hindmarsh said a lower supply of cows kept the market competitive.

"Over the last six to eight weeks the cow market has been very strong for us - it's been pleasing," he said.

"With the season and where we draw our cows from we've been inconsistent with our cow numbers.

"It's been wet so to get momentum has been hard."

Mr Hindmarsh said the top cows have been making about 420c/kg and they'd seen a lift in lighter cows.

"Before they were a bit behind the eight ball but our lead cows have been in the mid to high three dollars now," he said.

Mr Hindmarsh said a new abattoir in Cooma had lifted the competition for cows between meat works buyers and the usual bidders from Singleton, Wingham and Wagga Wagga.

Meanwhile in Tamworth Pitt Sons, Walcha, agent Sam Payne said the cow market was very strong with wet weather limiting supply and pushing demand.

"A lot of the processors are looking for cattle - there's a lot of demand so they've got to pay a bit more at the saleyards to secure their stock for the kill," he said.

Mr Payne said moving forward he expects the market to remain strong while there's still plenty of feed and rain around.