Weekly cattle and sheep market wrap
Key points
- Cattle, lamb and sheep yardings dropped across the week.
- Restocker Lamb Indicator struggled in a perfect storm of smaller yardings and widespread rain.
- National mutton slaughter lifted 10% over the week.
Rainfall across large parts of the country this week supported livestock markets, with most cattle and sheep indicators strengthening against smaller yardings.
Cattle market
The national cattle yarding dropped 21% over the week to a total of 42,652 head. All cattle indicators lifted except for the Dairy Cow Indicator (-1%).
The Restocker Yearling Heifer Indicator lifted 11% to reach 443¢/kg liveweight (lwt) across 2,898 head. Queensland formed 81% of the offering, however the best prices were found down south.
Dubbo averaged 529¢/kg lwt and Wagga averaged 521¢/kg lwt across offerings of just 61 and 218 head respectively.
The Feeder Steer Indicator lifted 2% to 519¢/kg lwt across an offering of 5,647 head.
Wagga contributed the largest share to the indicator, accounting for 17% (974 head). Strong prices from limited northern NSW supply saw Armidale, Gunnedah and Inverell emerge as the only saleyards to average above 550¢.
Sheep market
The national lamb yarding fell 28% to 111,335 head, while the national sheep yarding fell 8% to 46,724 head. Mixed results across the indicators saw all lift except for the Merino Lamb Indicator (-1%) and The Restocker Lamb Indicator (-5%).
The Restocker Lamb Indicator stood out this week, falling 5% week-on-week to 1,043¢/kg despite a smaller yarding and healthy rain across large parts of NSW, Victoria and SA.
The indicator was influenced by Katanning's 12% contribution with the yard averaging 666¢/kg cwt. By comparison, Katanning averaged 875¢/kg cwt at its previous sale and accounted for 11% of the offering – a decrease of 24% between sales.
Isolating NSW in the indicator shows a drop of 3.7% over the week. The Restocker Lamb Indicator is down 10% over the month and now sits 5% below its level from 12 months ago.
The Heavy Lamb Indicator lifted 3% to 1,127¢/kg carcase weight (cwt) across an offering of 14,915 head.
NSW formed most of the supply to make up 86% of the offering with Victoria offering up 12%. Prices were tight across all yards with best average in Ballarat at 1,171¢/kg cwt across 651 head offered.
Slaughter
Week ending 21 August 2026
Cattle
National cattle slaughter numbers increased 1.8% week-on-week to 150,172 head. Queensland drove the increase as the only state to lift across the week by 7%.
State-by-state cattle slaughter (YoY):
- NSW: down 1% to 35,073 head
- Queensland: down 1% to 79,188 head
- SA: up 3% to 3,876 head
- Tasmania: up 17% to 4,300 head
- Victoria: down 5% to 24,250 head
- WA: down 12% to 3,485 head.
Sheep
National lamb slaughter decreased 1.2% week-on-week to 371,000 head, while mutton slaughter increased 9.8% to 111,109 head.
State-by-state lamb slaughter (YoY):
- NSW: up 25% to 122,446 head
- Queensland: down 9% to 1,095 head
- SA: down 63% to 15,516 head
- Tasmania: up 65% to 8,025 head
- Victoria: up 1% to 183,352 head
- WA: down 10% to 40,566 head.
Attribute content to: Alex Fry, MLA Market Information Analyst
Information is correct at time of publication on 28 August 2026
