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NATIONAL SUMMARY
Driving Prices Up
- The conditions in South Australia and South West Victoria continue to be unseasonably dry with limited pasture feeding available. While there has been reasonable rainfall across both areas in the last few weeks it will still require additional time before pastures can turn into viable feed.
- Vetch and cereal hay continues to be in high demand, with comments indicating there is limited supply available in the market. Some exporters are releasing export quality hay to the domestic market and this is at a higher price due to quality.
- Demand is strong as expected at this time of year as cattle and dairy farmers look to good roughage to carry calving stock through the colder months. While recent rains are welcomed in dry areas, it will do little to build pastures before winter, so a feed gap is still expected. This is exacerbated by some fodder producers holding back additional supply for their own use.
Driving Prices Down
- Conditions in Western Australia continue to improve with more pastures becoming available for grazing and further reducing demand. However producers are still looking to rebuild storage and ensure a steady availability over winter so prices are stabilising rather than dropping in most cases.
- Older fodder supplies remain available on the market as producers clear out sheds to meet demand, some of this is quite low quality which is reducing the overall price point; however this hay is usually weather damaged from previous seasons and has usage in mixes and roughage only.
Local News
- While Western Australia continues to benefit from ongoing rain events and warmer temperatures helping to rebuild pastures, South Australia and South West Victoria continue to be dry. There has been reasonable rainfall over the last week in both regions and there is optimism of limited pasture availability, but more in the germination and emergence of the next season crops.
- Tasmania’s dry conditions continue for most of the state and supplies are running low. Fodder continues to be sourced from the mainland, but the process can be slow due to biosecurity measures.
- With the phase out date of the sheep live export trade now being confirmed there is some concern around the number of graziers who will move out of sheep and into cropping or away from farming with the flow on effect for the fodder industry with lower demand and higher supply.
- Buyers are encouraged to feed test and view fodder before purchase to be sure of the quality of feed.