Australia: Young heifer to steer price disparity hits eight-year highs

A LARGE and growing price disparity is being seen between young steers and heifers, as the industry heads towards mid-year. As regular markets columnist Chis Howie’s trading budget set out at the bottom of this article shows, there are some compelling opportunities in the heifer market at present, as a result. Some recent saleyards examples have seen the steer-to-heifer price differential grow to as much as $1/kg liveweight. Roma sale on Tuesday saw backgrounder steers 200-280kg score 2 average 367c/kg, while heifers of the same description averaged 267c – exactly 100c/kg split. The next highest weight category 280-330kg saw steers average 344c while heifers averaged 249c. A similar pattern is evident on AuctionsPlus online trading, where last week’s national sales saw weaner steers selling at a 22 percent price premium over heifers – the largest gap seen on the online trading platform since 2016. Here’s three AuctionsPlus weight range comparisons from last week’s sales: Some ...