Cattle price forecast with Simon Quilty

In recent weeks, good rain has seen growing optimism amongst livestock producers across the eastern seaboard, with cattle prices improving by 14 to 38 per cent (pc) depending on the category in the last four to six weeks.

With rain comes hope, and for many, there is now a growing belief the worst of the Australian drought is behind us. The weather experts have been talking about a dry late summer and autumn, but this rain has given the belief that any short-term dryness can be overcome with supplementary feeding and more importantly, better growing conditions are not far away.

September slaughter figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics also give me even greater hope of a strong rebound occurring. This is likely to happen sooner than later because the herd liquidation increased in Q3 lifting the female kill ratio to 49 pc from 48 pc (47 pc is the ratio of break-even where neither rebuild or liquidation occurs).