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NATIONAL SUMMARY
Driving Prices Up
- Those parts of the country that are still seeing dry or very dry conditions are continuing to drive demand, and while not pushing up prices, they are keeping prices elevated as demand cannot be met locally.
- Feedlots in the north of the country are looking for increasing amounts of fodder supplies and are reportedly willing to pay a premium on lesser quality hay which is keeping those lines higher.
- Exporters continue to source cereal hay throughout the country and are looking for good parcels at premium prices. Most of this is being met by contracted growers but opportunistic sales are taking place as some contracted crops did not produce enough supply.
Driving Prices Down
- Local green feed availability continues to keep demand, and therefore prices, stable in most of the southern areas of the country.
- Livestock and sheep farmers are either reducing herd size or are continuing to move to maintenance feeding which is tempering demand and price.
- Quite a number of livestock and dairy farmers took advantage of previous good years to lay in a fairly decent supply of hay and silage in sheds and pits, which is now being used to supplement pasture feed and keeping demand for fresh supply reduced.
- Older hay supplies are still filtering into the market, as the new season moves through the regions, this hay can be of lesser quality and therefore usually at a lower cost.
Local News
- Trade in hay is continuing to increase as the season progresses, and farmers look to bolster some reduced on-farm storage. A fair amount of old and new season fodder is still moving to the drier parts of the country.
- The amount of agricultural land which has been affected by fires in NSW, QLD and WA are continuing to come in, which some growers having lost a fair amount of feed paddocks and some stock losses.
- The live sheep phase out panel has been granted an extension to the date on which is it to report back to the Minister until the 25 October 2023, to allow it to take into account the large volume of submissions.
- BOM has declared that an El Niño and a positive IOD are underway. The declaration of these events reinforces the Bureau’s long-range rainfall and temperature forecasts, which continue to predict warmer and drier conditions for much of Australia over the next three months. Models indicate further warming of the central to eastern Pacific is likely and that this El Niño is likely to persist until at least the end of February. El Niño typically leads to reduced spring and early summer rainfall for eastern Australia, and warmer days for the southern two-thirds of the country.
- Buyers are encouraged to feed test and view fodder before purchase to be sure of the quality of feed.