A record cattle sell-off is under way across New South Wales and into the Queensland border region, with dry conditions catching many producers off guard after reasonable December rainfall.

Australian rural commentator and correspondent Libby Price says the severity is clear from what is hitting the saleyards.

“It’s 83,000 head for one month,” Price says.

Selling breeding stock signals producers are in genuine difficulty, not just managing numbers.

“The telling point is that they’re starting to sell cows.”

More than 64% of cattle sales are coming out of New South Wales. Price says an agent in Tamworth told her he has never seen anything like it.

The dry is also hitting cropping country along the Queensland–New South Wales border, where many farmers are not putting in winter crops at all.

“A lot of the farms just aren’t sowing,” she says. Wheat and canola are the most affected, with implications for grain supply to the feedlot sector later in the season.

In Victoria, conditions are better in the south and southeast, with some opportunistic buying of breeding stock happening.

“Prices have fallen 14% in New South Wales,” she says, with Victorian farmers paying relatively strong prices by comparison.

On beef exports, trade into the United States remains solid for now, though Price says it is beginning to ease.