Weekly cattle and sheep market wrap

15 May 2026

Key points

National yardings across all species fell.
Cattle market indicators continued to lift.
Slaughter in NSW reached near record state levels.

Across a reduced yarding, cattle indicators continued to lift off the back of last week’s gains, while all lamb indicators fell except for the Mutton Indicator. Cattle slaughter remains at historically elevated levels.

Cattle market

With winter approaching, most producers have made decisions on carrying stock through winter, resulting in the national cattle yarding falling 21% to 67,965 head. The tighter supply lifted all market indicators, except for the Dairy Cow Indicator, which fell 6¢ to 315¢/kg liveweight (lwt). This trend continues a positive run for prices, with all indicators above prices from a month ago.

Restocker categories gained the most over the week, with the Restocker Yearling Heifer Indicator lifting 5% to 360¢/kg lwt. Roma and Dalby contributed 60% of the supply which totalled 2,602 head.

The Feeder Steer Indicator lifted 2.9% to 472.5¢/kg lwt across an offering of 5,198 head. A premium for the category came from southern NSW with Wagga, Forbes and Carcoar averaging 490¢–501¢/kg lwt.

Sheep market

The national lamb yarding fell 12.6% to 162,513, while the national sheep yarding fell 22% to 68,242 head. Despite the reduced supply, all market indicators except for the Mutton Indicator fell, though both the Wagga and Ballarat market reports noted firm demand for short skin lambs coming off feed, with feedlots as a key source of competition. The Mutton Indicator lifted 1.5% to 788¢/kg carcase weight (cwt).

The Merino Lamb Indicator fell 4% to 987¢/kg cwt across an offering of 9,171 head. The category performed best outside of NSW. In Victoria and SA, just 1,761 head were available, making 2% and 5% above the national aggregate, respectively.

The Heavy Lamb Indicator fell 4% to 1,063.5¢/kg cwt across an offering of 25,264 head. Wagga made up 31% of the total contribution, while Victorian yards made up 35% of the total supply.

Slaughter

Week ending 8 May 2026

Cattle

National cattle slaughter fell 3% to 156,168 head. The Labour Day public holiday affected the Queensland slaughter figures. A significant part of the difference was made up by NSW, which increased slaughter by 23% to 40,276 head, its highest level since December 2015.

State-by-state cattle slaughter (YoY):

NSW: up 3.8% to 40,276 head

Queensland: up 10% to 75,578 head

SA: up 2.4% to 3,875 head

Tasmania: up 9.8% to 5,237 head

Victoria: up 9.8% to 27,469 head

WA: up 57.8% to 3,733 head.

Sheepmeat

National lamb slaughter lifted 4% to 400,932 head, while national mutton slaughter lifted 16% to 129,218 head.

State-by-state lamb slaughter (YoY):

NSW: down 14% to 117,331 head

Queensland: down 21% to 1,068 head

SA: down 36% to 37,905 head

Tasmania: down 46% to 6,263 head

Victoria: down 27.5% to 182,604 head

WA: down 7.7% to 55,761 head.

Attribute content to: Alex Fry, MLA Market Information Analyst

Information is correct at the time of publication on 15 May 2026

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