Market Morsel
A look at global cattle prices, monthly average prices for a heavy steer equivalent converted into AU cents per kilogram on a live weight basis, for selected northern hemisphere and South American markets versus Australian prices demonstrates an interesting trend since 2019. During the recent herd rebuild phase in Australia our heavy steer prices were running at a premium to the US and on parity with the UK.
However a spooked cattle market into the end of 2023 saw Australian prices revert back toward South American price levels. Currently the monthly average price basis (as at the end of March 2025) have Australian heavy steer pricing sitting at 370 c/kg lwt, versus Brazil on 298 AU cents, Argentina on 398 AU cents and the US/UK surging past 700 AU cents. On a 500kg steer this places the per head pricing at about $1490 – $1990 in South America, $1,850 in Australia and between $3,700 to $4,000 per head in the northern hemisphere markets.
In terms of percentage price spread trends, current price discounts to the northern hemisphere sits at about a 50% discount, widening slightly from around a 40% discount in the later months of 2024. Australian steers have moved from a premium of 20% to a discount of about 10% to Argentina over the last six months. Meanwhile the premium to Brazil has dropped from about 60% to 20% from September 2024 to March 2025.
