Lambs yardings sprang back after last week’s reduction, with selling resuming at Hamilton.
Overall yardings were 20% higher week-on-week at MLA’s NLRS reported markets.
Ballarat again increased its yarding, which was 42% higher on last week.
Bendigo lifted 16% however Horsham was back by 4%.
Sheep yardings also increased 20%, with all markets realising greater numbers.
The largest rise occurred at Ballarat, where 23% more sheep were yarded.
There were modest increases of 14% at Horsham and 9% at Bendigo.
New season lamb quality improving
The majority of young lamb supply were trade and heavy heavier along with light lambs suitable for restocking.
There was a large portion of trade weight 3 score lambs and sizeable lines of unfinished trade weights.
Dry weather is still affecting lambs however quality appears to be on the improve. Old season lambs and sheep quality continues to be very mixed.
There were slightly fewer buyers at Bendigo and only a small field of processors at Hamilton. Restockers remained active on light lambs.
Interest from processors was not as spirited, particularly on light lambs however heavy lambs were eagerly sought after.
There was good interest on mutton with light weights and lean conditioned medium weights selling to the strongest enquiry.
Cheaper markets
All markets experienced cheaper trends as the increased supply could not be absorbed by existing demand.
The restocker lamb indicator gained $5 to $70/head however carcass weight prices dropped, reflecting the heavier store lamb supply.
Many processors have kill space booked and are restricting operations at physical markets which impacted on prices.
Light processor lambs dropped 22¢ to 361¢/kg cwt. Trade lambs followed suit, dropping 12¢ to $360¢/kg cwt.
Once again heavy lambs faired the best however prices still reduced 2¢ to 376¢/kg cwt. Mutton though managed to maintain last week’s prices to finish around 152¢/kg cwt.
Source: MLA.com
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