Sheep yardings lower
Lamb yardings remained similar on last week across MLA’s NLRS reported markets however individual markets did experience changes, with Ballarat increasing their supply 19%, while all markets reported a slight reduction in supply.
There continued to be a solid supply of trade weight lambs and heavier light lambs. Heavy weight lambs are still scarce.
Victorian sheep supply experienced a 10% reduction. Most of this fall occurred in Bendigo and Ballarat. Horsham was the only market to attract more sheep, yarding 19% more on last week.
Lamb quality drops
The quality of young lambs slipped from last week with most of the selection being plain to average. There were numerous drafts of lambs with dry skins, reflecting recent weather conditions especially in the north. Old season lambs were similarly presented.
Sheep quality was very mixed although good quality lines of medium weight ewes and wethers were offered. Many lines of heavy over conditioned ewes were presented to reluctant buyers.
Prices slouch under wilted demand
Most of the regular buyers were operating however with Victorian lamb slaughter at a two year high and many plants heavily booked there was not enough interest at physical markets to alleviate price falls.
The reduced rivalry for lambs was also seen in the direct-to-works market as many plants dropped their young lamb rates by 10¢ to 20¢/kg cwt this week.
Mutton is experiencing steady demand however prices are still low. Direct to works prices remained steady for mutton.
Restockers were active however reduced competition for light lambs from processors saw store lambs drop $5 to $64/head. Merino lambs lost 90¢ to 193¢/kg cwt or $48/head.
Light lambs to slaughter dropped 15¢ to 346¢/kg cwt. Trade lambs sold to a cheaper trend by 24¢ to average 336¢/kg cwt. Heavy lambs showed less resilience this week, sliding back 40¢ to 336¢/kg cwt.
Mutton prices took a further dip by 2¢ to 150¢/kg cwt despite good interest on light weight ewes.
Source: farmonline.com.au
Back to News Headlines