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NATIONAL SUMMARY
Driving Prices Up
- As has been the case for a while, the ongoing dry conditions in the north of the country continue to drive demand and price. Though this is currently being expressed as a holding of the current pricing rather than pushing prices up.
- Transport costs continue to affect the final costs of fodder given the distances that the fodder needs to travel as well as the high cost of diesel and the shortage of drivers being passed on to the end users.
- Low saleyard prices continue to cause issues for livestock producers who are keeping additional livestock on farm, and requiring fodder supplies to keep the stock in good condition.
Driving Prices Down
- Local green feed availability is keeping demand, and therefore prices, stable in select areas of the country.
- More livestock producers are moving into maintenance feeding schedules in areas with limited pasture availability. A larger than usual amount for this time of year of the sheep flock is being processed as graziers lower their flock sizes.
- Hay season is starting or at most a few weeks away in parts of the country and some end users are holding off on purchases in the expectation that higher supply will reduce the cost of fodder.
- In those areas where hay season is kicking off or about to start, hay sheds are being emptied and therefore some lower grade, older hay stocks are on the market. This hay is of variable quality and is reducing the price point in selected regions.
Local News
- Trade in hay is continuing to move, but quite a bit of this is either older stock moving out of sheds, or some small amounts of newly cut hay. This hay is headed north from the southern states to meet demand in those drier areas of the country. Any fodder being cut in southern QLD or Northern NSW is being sold and transported very quickly to meet local demand. Some across state hay supplies are moving into the eastern parts of Gippsland where it continues to be unseasonably dry.
- The Bureau has declared that an El Niño and a positive IOD are underway. The declaration of these events, and their concurrence over spring, 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. The confirmation of an established El Niño increases the likelihood that the event will be sustained through the summer period. 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.