Will the herd decrease and by how much? This is the information the rural sector needs to make management decisions going into winter and looking towards spring.

New data from Meat and Livestock Australia shows that the herd is set to contract. Numbers have been revised downwards due to both drought and floods.

Even after the Easter break which saw a recess for selling centres, including Wagga, numbers declined by more than initially expected.

On Monday vendors sold just 2300 cattle which was back by 1000 head from the previous market. There were only 580 cows penned.

National beef cattle herd revised down due to drought and floods. MLA's Market Intelligence manager, Scott Tolmie, said forecast adult slaughter for 2019 has been revised slightly higher, but is still expected to be below 2018 levels at 7.7 million head.

"The revision is largely driven by harsher-than-expected seasonal conditions during the first quarter and subsequent accelerated slaughter," Mr Tolmie said.

"For the year-to-February, adult cattle slaughter was 1.28 million head, 11 per cent higher than the same period in 2018 and the highest opening kill since 2015.

"With a reduced pool of available slaughter cattle, any widespread autumn and winter falls will be pivotal to how slaughter tracks in the second half of the year." Mr Tolmie said the female portion of total adult cattle slaughter has remained elevated this year, reaching 54 per cent in February, its highest monthly level since June 2003.

"Elevated female slaughter and lighter sale weights. This trend in carcase weights is forecast to continue, which combined with slaughter figures, will underpin a 3 per cent decline in production this year, to an estimated 2.2 million tonnes carcase weight (cwt).

"Beef exports for 2019 have been revised marginally higher since the January projections, to 1.09 million tonnes shipped weight (swt) - a 3 per cent contraction year-on-year but still above any level recorded prior to 2013. "At a time of drought-induced elevated cattle slaughter, global demand for Australian beef has been strong, supported by a low Australian dollar and fresh tariff reductions in the new year."