From Monday 18 May, MLA’s Livestock Market Officers (LMOs) are able to visit saleyards to conduct on-site market reporting if they choose to do so.
MLA’s COVID-19 response team has been closely assessing the options for LMOs to attend markets, ensuring there are a number of processes in place to ensure their health and safety is protected. LMOs may continue to report remotely if they choose to do so.
LMOs have been working remotely since 25 March when MLA closed all offices (apart from China) to support global containment efforts of COVID-19.
The decision for LMOs to return to saleyards has been made by MLA after close examination of the direction from the Australian and state governments and health authorities.
To support their return to saleyards, MLA has developed protocols to protect the health and safety of LMOs which are in line with protocols currently in place in saleyards nationally. These protocols are supported by the Australian Livestock Markets Association (ALMA) and the Australian Livestock and Property Agents Association (ALPA).
The option for LMOs to return to saleyards will be reviewed if local COVID-19 cases emerge or there are changes to the direction from government and health authorities.
Impact on reporting
The full suite of MLA’s market reporting will resume when conditions return to normal – when all LMOs have returned to saleyards and all saleyards covered by the national indicators are operational.
MLA is unable to indicate the precise timing of this given the fluid nature of COVID-19 – but will communicate to Australia’s red meat and livestock stakeholders as soon as market reporting will return to normal.
Until conditions return to normal, cattle and sheep indicators will remain unavailable (the Eastern Young Cattle Indicator, National Trade Lamb Indicator and the indicator charts/tools/values across the MLA webpages won’t be updated). In the meantime, MLA will continue to issue its CV19 cattle and CV19 sheep market indicators (which are comparable but distinct in specification to the regular national indicators).
Full versions of physical cattle, store cattle and sheep saleyard reports will be available for saleyards which are physically attended by an LMO.
Modified versions of physical cattle, store cattle and sheep saleyard reports will continue to be available for saleyards not attended by an LMO (muscle score, fat score, estimated CWT price and skin values won’t be available).
| Name of report | Status of report | What has changed |
| Physical cattle saleyard market report (detailed version) | Modified | For sales where the Livestock Market Officer cannot visually assess the animal, the following data will be temporarily unavailable*:
|
| Physical sheep saleyard market report (detailed version) | Modified | For sales where the Livestock Market Officer cannot visually assess the animal, the following will be temporarily unavailable*:
|
| Store cattle saleyard market report | Modified | For sales where the Livestock Market Officer cannot visually assess the animal, the following will be temporarily unavailable*:
|
| Physical sheep saleyard market report (media version) | Suspended | For sales where the Livestock Market Officer cannot visually assess the animal, this report will be temporarily unavailable* |
| EYCI daily summary report | Suspended | Report is suspended |
| Eastern states daily indicator (ESDI) report | Suspended | Report is suspended |
| Comprehensive indicator report | Suspended | Report is suspended |
Cattle market price indicators (CV19) – national | New | Provides modified versions of the following indicators:
|
Sheep market price indicators (CV19) – national | New | Provides three new unique indicators:
All use average state-level monthly estimates of carcase prices calculated from the past five years. |
*may change across location and weeks
Other market information services
MLA’s Market Information service will continue, the information published on the MLA website under the following sections will continue:
MLA’s subscription services will continue. Market reports and indicators will differ as highlighted above. All other subscription services will remain unchanged.
