Roundup

Australia – drought pushes more cattle to slaughter

The number of cattle in feedlots in Australia has risen sharply in recent months to hit a record 1.12m head at the end of June. This is up 9%, or almost 95,000 head, from March feedlot numbers. The difficult drought conditions in Australia are forcing many beef farmers to cull numbers.

US – beef herd starting to contract due to hot weather

US farmers are culling cattle numbers due to drought conditions this year. Total cow slaughterings for the first half of 2018 are up 8% on last year, with dairy cow slaughterings up 5% and beef cattle slaughterings up 11%. Feedlot cattle slaughterings are up almost 3% at 12.7m head.

Brazil – farmers set to plant record soya bean crop

Brazilian farmers are set to plant a record soya bean crop this September on 36.3m hectares, or almost 90m acres. This would be a 3% increase on last year’s planted area in soya beans and mark 12 consecutive years that Brazilian farmers have expanded soya bean acreages.

Ukraine – yields fall for 2018 wheat harvest

Grain farmers in Ukraine have recently completed the 2018 wheat harvest. Similar to much of Europe, average yields are down from 4.2t/ha in 2017 to 3.8t/ha this season. Overall wheat production in Ukraine for 2018 stands at 25m tonnes, which is down 1.6m tonnes on last year.