WHILE the confirmation of El Nino and the global down turn in the economy has continued to lower livestock prices across Australia, local cattle producers are still tracking well.

Myrtleford-based Nutrien Ag Solutions livestock sales consultant Wade Ivone said local conditions have seen a great season so far.

“It’s been a good season; the rain came just as we needed it and it's looking very good locally, but that’s a fairly isolated case,” he said.

“The El Nino weather event is having an impact across fairly large parts of areas that we need, to keep prices looking good.

“It’s had a big impact on prices and there’s not a lot of confidence in the market.

“There’s an oversupply, the market has been in a fairly big decline for a few months now and no one knows when it might end so we could see these prices for a fair while.

“There’s not much we can do, at the moment it’s carry on with business rather than try to guess what the weather and prices will do.

“There were some positives in the last week with a stronger demand, not necessarily stronger prices, but demand, so we hope it leads to an uptick...but even then it won’t be massive due to the oversupply of cattle to go into feedlots and be processed.

“There’s not the money on the other end so if you buy cattle now you don’t know when you'll be able to move it.”

Mr Ivone said El Nino and the global downturn in economy are the two main driving factors of the lower prices.

“People are watching what they spend so the lesser cuts of meat and mince is moving faster than other cuts of meat,” he said.

“That has an impact on prices because it's lesser quality, lower grade stuff so there’s not the urgency to buy the better product at the moment.

“Another factor is the abattoirs are still seeing staff shortages and are at capacity with what they can process; they would process more if they had the shifts to cover.

“In terms of today’s Myrtleford Spring Special Sale, the quality of cattle will be very good...it will just be a matter of where the buyers are at.

“Numbers are down a little, with 1200 head, with cattle getting marketed in different directions but it’s similar to where we’ve been.

“Now is the time to buy cattle locally, while the grass is growing.”

The Myrtleford Spring Special Sale starts from 11am at Nutrien Yards, Matheson Road, Myrtleford.