Abattoirs taking bookings up to six weeks out

Daniel McCulloch, McCulloch Agencies, Tamworth, said there was a bottleneck going into the abattoirs.

"It's all hitting at once - the abattoirs can't get enough staff so therefore they can only do a certain amount of shifts, there's more cattle in the market so there's just not enough kill space to get the cattle killed," he said.

"We've got a dry season on top of that and everyone's panic selling before winter."

Mr McCulloch said the market had been getting cheaper but he did not think it would be far away before things turn around.

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"Once we get through July/August I can see there's going to be a shortage of fat cattle and the market will get stronger," he said.

"There's descriptions of cattle that are $1000 cheaper than last year, that's a massive difference. It's the best buying opportunity we've seen in probably three years."

Mr McCulloch said the average for clients booking kills was a month to six weeks in advance.

"Processors are good at supporting the saleyard system... and when we've got those bigger numbers they push out the direct to consignment cattle knowing there's more saleyard numbers to handle," he said.

Kel Sullivan, Dillon and Sons, Dungog, said with no local restocker demand at Singleton prime cattle sales, the market had taken a huge hit. He said prices were at least half of what they were a year ago and in some places two-thirds cheaper.

Mr Sullivan said during the past few weeks there had been two exporters operating, Wingham Beef Exports and EC Throsby, however with more and more producers booking direct consignment they did not need to be spending good money.

"The export market has been very flat over the past few weeks," he said.

"I think a lot of people have been hitting the panic button and booking there cattle in direct to the local abattoirs."

Mr Sullivan said one local stock carrier currently had more than 20 loads of cattle to take from the Dungog area to abattoirs before the end of the financial year.

"That's huge," he said.

"He usually does a couple a week - at the moment he's at five a week where people are panicking and we haven't even hit winter yet."

While the local processors are taking bookings about four to five weeks in advance Mr Sullivan said the season, not the wait, would be the challenge.

"There's guys already putting silage out just to keep the condition on them."

Hindmarsh and Son agent Nick Harton, Braidwood, said supply was up, increasing pressure on the market.

"A lot of people are coming into winter and not in as good a position as they were last year grass wise so a few people are making the decision to offload," he said.

Mr Harton said processors were not having to push very hard in the yards with most booked out until about the end of June.

"Some processors are at the point of not quoting - you're only booking space."