Australian Cattle and Beef Market Report

This week, Ripley Atkinson, Australian Meats & Livestock Manager at StoneX, examines the forces behind the cattle market, unpacking key drivers across parts of Queensland and the Northern Territory, as well as New South Wales. 

Ripley discusses how an impending storm system due this week for large parts of the Northern Territory and Queensland could motivate producer confidence while boosting market activity. He also covers the slump of confidence from New South Wales producers and how slaughter numbers may rebound in Q4 under continued demand from China and South Korea.   

To cap off, Ripley unpacks the price spreads between Flatbacks and Southern & Northern Angus feeder cattle, including what these could signify from a demand perspective.   

Pricing pressure is building across livestock markets as dry conditions persist and producer confidence softens.

In this week’s episode Ripley Atkinson, Australian Meats & Livestock Manager at StoneX, unpacks the growing challenges facing restockers, the impact of reduced participation from southern buyers, and what elevated freight costs mean for feeder cattle prices and broader market dynamics.

Listen in for a wide-ranging discussion on the trends shaping the market and the outlook ahead.

This week, Ripley Atkinson provides his views on key drivers influencing the Australian cattle markets – specifically, how weather continues to shape market sentiment.

As weather events continue to influence producer confidence and price direction, Ripley explores the shifts in performance, and what it could mean for months ahead with the changing seasonal conditions.

Ripley caps off with considerations on how Angus feeder prices are performing and identifies potential drivers of why the market in Northern NSW has remained strong – particularly, due to a lack of supply and the China demand effect.

This, and more covered in wide-ranging markets chat this week.

With the recently released key data reports on the beef industry’s second half of 2026, Ripley Atkinson, StoneX Australian Meats & Livestock Manager, dives right into the results from both reports and unpacks what is in store for an undoubtedly exciting remainder of the industry’s year.

Ripley dissects how Q2 saw the highest slaughter results since 1978 at the same time as beef production reaching a staggering record high. While these figures seem remarkable, Ripley highlights that they did not happen by accident and are the result of significant herd growth – the likes of which the industry has observed since 2022 and crucially, the expansion in capacity made by lot feeders and processors to accommodate larger cattle supply.

With lot feeding, Ripley also highlights that the continued expansion of feedlots in Australia can be attributed to NSW & QLD; the two major states. Importantly, he recognises that signals from the processing sector for more consistent cattle supply, made possible by lot feeding, is a continual motivator in encouraging overall expansion.

Finally, Ripley considers key themes and sector considerations to watch as we strap in for the rest of 2026.

This week, Ripley Atkinson, Australian Meats & Livestock Manager visits the StoneX Kansas City office, visiting Adam Stout and Ben Parks, who run the StoneX U.S. Meats & Livestock desk.

In a wide-ranging discussion on the U.S. market, Adam and Ben provides detailed insights into seasonal conditions, supply - discussing the U.S./Mexican border’s gradual reopening and what it might means for markets moving forwards.

This episode’s key topic revolves around U.S. consumer demand, and where that currently sits from a seasonal perspective, especially on its demand forecast leading into Thanksgiving and Christmas. To wrap up, Adam and Ben share their views with Ripley on why risk management adoption and utilization for cattle producers, as well as the broader supply chain has been so strong for so long in the U.S. market.

In this unmissable episode, Ripley Atkinson, StoneX Australian Meats & Livestock Manager, brings exciting forecasts into the outlooks for the beef industry in 2026, with the release of the StoneX H2 2026 Australian Cattle & Beef Market Outlook Report. The market looks to remain grounded with strong domestic market fundamentals, despite colliding with global macro headwinds, and Ripley unpacks it all as he walks us through what it means for the beef supply chain.

We cover key production forecasts, discussing herd size, slaughter, production and exports. Ripley also provides his take on where prices and supply are headed, as well as crucial challenges and opportunities on the horizon that all in the beef industry should be aware of.

This week, Ripley Atkinson, Australian Meats & Livestock Manager breaks down current market conditions, following updates from our last episode. Ripley discusses the pricing landscape, in particular, how current price levels are operating at Decile 9 and 10. Acknowledging the recent market volatility, Ripley discusses pricing so far in 2026 and how that has caused some wariness from restockers to emerge, especially relating to paying higher prices in an uncertain outlook.

Unpack emerging trends observed by Ripley, supported by both a seasonal lull in supply and of beef processors reducing throughput. Find out what it all means for the local market, and how it’s related to falling global export market prices.

An episode to tune into; packed full of detail and insights on the current Australian beef market.

Having been a month since the last market update, this week Ripley Atkinson, Australian Meats & Livestock Manager for StoneX, unpacks the key drivers behind the recent price rally and how it has unfolded across the market.

Ripley discusses the early signs emerging from beef producers’ buying behavior that may point to the beginning of a herd rebuild, while also explaining the structural changes occurring in the northern feeder cattle markets on winter pricing. On the ever-topical Angus side, Ripley points out that the northern NSW Angus feeder cattle have simply changed postcodes with many weaners sold earlier in 2026.

To round out the episode, drawing on insights from StoneX Meats & Livestock teams around the world, Ripley highlights growing supply pressure from South America in the manufacturing beef market and discusses signs of price fatigue from U.S. customers.

In this episode, Ripley Atkinson, Australian Meats & Livestock Manager at StoneX dives into the April wave of the recently released Beef Producer Intentions Survey (BPIS) reported by Meat & Livestock Australia.

Ripley unpacks all the key details and insights the report provides. Sourced directly from Australian producers, the report acknowledges the influence that the Middle East conflict had on producer confidence as a result of impacts around geopolitics and rising input prices. At a local level, Ripley considers the report’s findings around herd number changes and what this structurally may mean for the beef sector with the retention of more grass-fed bullocks and strong growth in the northern breeding herd.

A month ago, Ripley Atkinson, Australian Meats & Livestock Manager, suggested that the month of May would be critical to answering critical questions about the markets’ position moving forwards.

Now that May is at its end, this episode dives into all the key details of how the month has unfolded for the industry, and importantly – what the key drivers of this immense rally in cattle prices are at present Ripley unpacks the multiple factors at play – Including weather, southern demand, expansion of the buying capacity and short supply- all congregating at once to influence prices.