MLA indicators are back, for now

Meat & Livestock Australia’s full suite of cattle and sheep market indicators returned this week, after being suspended since March because of COVID-19 disruptions to market reporting.

The return of the indicators yesterday followed MLA’s livestock market officers’ recent return to saleyards nationwide for physical market reporting.

If COVID-19 disrupts market reporting again, the indicators will again be suspended.

If there are local disruptions, there may be instances where a full saleyard report is not available, MLA advised.

The full suite of MLA’s market reporting that resumed this week included full versions of physical cattle, store cattle and sheep saleyard report, including muscle score, fat score, estimated carcase weight, estimated dressing percentage and skin values.

It also included cattle and sheep indicators, including the Eastern Young Cattle Indicator, National Trade Lamb Indicator.

Indicator charts/tools/values will also be updated.

The EYCI daily summary report, Eastern States daily indicator report and comprehensive indicator report will also resume.

MLA on Tuesday released a statement, which said it would continue to publish the temporary CV19 cattle and CV19 sheep market indicators but would regularly review this in line with the broader operating environment.

MLA is also working on a method to close the missing data series of livestock indicators caused by COVID-19 related disruptions to market reporting between March and June 2020.

The replacement data will undergo a comprehensive and rigorous assessment using historical data before being publicly released.

MLA said it would advise if and when this data is available.