The supply of cattle for Queensland beef processors is expected to tighten over the next two months according to JBS northern livestock manager Steve Groom.
With large numbers of producers turning-off their cattle recently, Mr Groom expects the numbers of slaughter cattle available for processing to decline by the end of this month.
He noted the recent “good” supply of cattle from southern Queensland and also parts of New South Wales was most likely coming to an end over the next two weeks.
“Supply is impacted by weather conditions and we’ve had a decent supply of cattle recently,” Mr Groom said.
“This game isn’t going to get any easier over the next six to eight weeks.”
Mr Groom believes the large sell-off of cattle will begin to slow up over the next fortnight.
“The back end of June and also July is going to see processing cattle numbers become tight and August is going to be even harder for cattle processors to secure supply,” he said.
It has been difficult trading conditions for beef processors during this year, but late summer rain in parts of Queensland, followed by the dry weather conditions and more subdued cattle prices, has seen a slight improvement recently for processors according to Mr Groom.
“We are starting to see some profit in the job now, but it was very tough for the first four months of this year,” Mr Groom said.
“But cattle supply is now going to be hard in the short-term.”
Mr Groom also added the cattle herd rebuild expected this year is “no longer going to happen” and is potentially set-back by two years.
In the organic beef processing space, JBS in Queensland generally processors around 400 to 500 head per week and currently has ordered filled for the next six to seven weeks.
