Cattle supply shortage due to wet weather, but optimism still at an all-time high

Victorian graziers are reporting wet conditions - from Wangaratta to Leongatha - as livestock agents anticipate volumes of store cattle through saleyards will increase in the coming weeks.

It follows another rise in the Eastern Young Cattle Indicator which shot up 16 cents a kilogram from 1038c/kg a week ago to 1054c/kg on Wednesday.

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Nutrien South Gippsland Livestock manager Brian McCormack, Leongatha, said spring grass growth would likely drive urgency among grass fatteners ahead of summer.

"Rather than pushing the top end of your calves up much more, I think that's going to bring the bottom end of those young cattle up," Mr McCormack said.

"You have to make sure you leave room for a margin and if the top end pushes up too much, the margin closes down too much and the risk to the grass fatteners to make any money out of the cattle increases."

Charles Stewart director Jamie McConachy, Colac, said the store market was "feed-activated" and in "terrific shape", but prime cattle were few and far between.

"We won't see a great deal of fat cattle come out of Victoria apart from the northern section of the state until the end of the year because they don't arrive until the season starts to turn," Mr McConachy said.

"The store market on the other hand has hit a very big high and we'll continue to see those high prices as long as grass remains green."

Nutrien Wangaratta livestock agent Daniel Fischer said the condition of prime cattle had been delayed due to the wet weather.

"You'd be struggling to find a spot within 100 kilometres of Wangaratta that isn't wet," Mr Fischer said.

"Our prime cattle are a few weeks behind schedule because we haven't had the warmth or grass growth.

"Give us another fortnight, and most of our country will be ready to grow so we'll see a substantial amount of grass through October and November."

Bill Wyndham & Co livestock manager Colin Jones, Bairnsdale, said conditions in the eastern section of the state were much the same as the rest of Victoria - wet and muddy.

"The store market prices are still outstanding and we've had a very good start to season over here," Mr Jones said.

"Some of the hill country has dried out a fraction on top, but overall it's still very wet in places."

"We've noticed more feedlot demand, but restockers are stepping up too."

Meanwhile, Elders territory sales manager for Albury, NSW, and Wangaratta Oliver Mason said farmers were continuing to manage the muddy conditions in the north-east.

"The conditions are excellent but one of the issues we have is that people who have low-lying country have all of their cattle on high country because river country is almost unusable," he said.

"Catchments are full, the rivers are high and we've had rainfall which has ruined pastures in a lot of cases.

"It does dry out at this time of year and we've already had prolific pasture growth, we've just got to be able to get onto it and utilise it."