Widespread talk about foot and mouth disease about three weeks ago caused many livestock producers to sell off stock, causing an oversupply in the market, according to Elders SA northern cattle co-ordinator Bruce Cameron.
But he said the cattle job coming back slightly also coincided with processing costs soaring and the demand for meat products dropping.
Mr Cameron said he spoke to a large multi state processor last week who explained the factors affecting prices.
"The cost of slaughtering an animal has gone through the roof in terms of what it cost the operator works," he said.
"So those costs are being passed on naturally and we have seen a reduction in the end processor product where the costs have gone up.
"Summing it up, your cost of production in the other end has gone through the roof, like gas prices going up 300 per cent, a shortage of staff to kill animals and also the domestic demand for meat, lamb, mutton and beef in the last three weeks has dropped off big time."
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Prostock Livestock national livestock manager Clint Endersby, Mount Compass, said cattle prices looked to have stabilised this week.
"After a couple of weeks of a lot of downward pressure, it's just started to level out," he said.
"It's even improved in some areas, so the returns are still actually very good.
"They are just not quite what we have been used to for the last 18 months.
"Slaughter cattle haven't been affected anywhere near as much as cattle bought to enter the feedlot.
"The biggest price loss is probably on some of the younger cattle, which I think was caused by FMD, as people were not prepared to actually go and buy anymore, they just want to stick with what they've got."
He said in the past month, the perfect storm has happened in cattle buying.
"FMD fears also came with a pretty big cold snap across the country and some pretty wet weather through the eastern states," he said.
"It all happened at once but it has started to even out a bit now."
Miller Whan and John livestock agent Andrew Whan, Mount Gambier, said the cattle market had eased in the past month but seemed to be levelling off.
"We expect this weeks sale to be very similar to where it's been for the last couple of weeks," he said. "Helping prices a little bit is the lack of numbers but what's not helping is the lack of quality.
"We are seeing a very basic, very wintry yarding down here at the moment."
He said this time of year usually affected numbers.
"While the eastern states young cattle indicator has come back, you've also got to remember that is also tied to store cattle prices," he said.
"So yes, the fat cattle prices have come back, but the store cattle prices have come back a fair bit more.
"They traditionally do in July and August because nobody's got any feed and on grass cattle are not about.
"Down here on the South East, we would expect to see the earliest cattle come in early September and start going forward from there."
Kiara Stacey
Journalist for Stock Journal. Kiara was in classified sales at Stock Journal before joining the editorial team in 2021. Kiara completed a Bachelor of Communication (journalism) at Deakin University the year prior.
Journalist for Stock Journal. Kiara was in classified sales at Stock Journal before joining the editorial team in 2021. Kiara completed a Bachelor of Communication (journalism) at Deakin University the year prior.
