Meat & Livestock Australia announced today that Roma Saleyards, Australia’s largest cattle selling centre, will be included in MLA’s National Livestock Reporting Service (NLRS) from 19 January 2010.
The Roma yards accounted for more than 20 percent of total Queensland cattle market throughput in 2008-09, according to MLA’s NLRS Manager Travis Parcsi.
“The addition of Roma Saleyards to the NLRS is a win-win for local producers and the broader industry,” Mr Parcsi said.
“Roma services a wide area and has the largest saleyard throughput of cattle in Australia, with over 407,000 head sold in 2008-09.
“The Roma market has traditionally been a barometer for store cattle sale prices so combining these figures with MLA’s NLRS wide-ranging reporting services will provide an even more reliable indicator of cattle prices for producers across the country.”
MLA’s NLRS provides an independent, accurate and timely source of livestock market information collected directly from major prime and store markets, feeder and direct sales and wholesale meat markets. In addition, the NLRS provides weekly summaries, skin and hide prices and slaughter information.
MLA’s NLRS was approached by Roma Saleyards to commence reporting both weekly store and prime markets.
Roma Saleyards operations manager Terry Hyland said by joining the NLRS they could ensure efficient capture and reporting of their sales as well as including more detailed data such as muscle scores, fat scores and weight ranges in their market report.
“Roma Saleyards is committed to providing reliable market information and we look forward to working in conjunction with MLA’s NLRS to deliver key market data for producers, vendors and other key industry stakeholders,” Mr Hyland said.
The first sales to take advantage of the NLRS will be the store sale on Tuesday 19 January followed by the prime sale on Thursday 21 January.
MLA members can access detailed reports and weekly saleyard and over-the-hooks reports by email free-of-charge. They can also receive the Eastern States Daily Indicator by text message (SMS) for just $1.50 per week. Further information is available at www.mla.com.au/nlrs
“I encourage producers to take advantage of the email and SMS technology available to quickly access real-time daily market data to keep abreast of the latest information available,” Mr Parcsi added.
