Lambs at Shepparton Regional Saleyards on September 19.
Lamb producers are enjoying the benefits of strong demand as prices climb above $370/head in northern Victoria and the southern Riverina.
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New season’s lambs made to $378 at Bendigo on September 15, and at Finley prices climbed to $384 at the last fortnightly sale on September 9.
Meat & Livestock Australia reports that the Bendigo yarding jumped by thousands of head, but maintained or improved in quality compared to the previous week.
Young lambs were $10 to $30/head dearer, lifting back to rates of 1200¢/kg plus on the best pens.
Nutrien Ag Solutions livestock manager Nick Byrne said the higher prices across the range of categories at Bendigo represented the operation of supply and demand.
On the supply side, there had been a big sell-off of sheep in the past 12 to 18 months.
With improving pasture growth in spring, some producers were holding back stock, while restockers and finishers were looking for more lambs.
“There’s been no rush to offload sheep,” Mr Byrne said.
He pointed out the numbers at Bendigo were not that high, and he expected the yarding to hit 30,000 soon, but even that number was not historically high.
Nutrien agent Levi Cornish auctions a pen at Shepparton Regional Saleyards on Friday.
Finley agent Nathan Everingham said demand had been strong and supply was short for this time of the year.
“We can’t quite get enough, so I expect demand will continue to be strong.”
Rabobank senior animal protein analyst Angus Gidley-Baird believes it’s a case of processors testing the water on how many lambs remain available.
“The questions we have been asking for the past couple of months around how many lambs are left and how many will there be in the new season still remain,” he said.
“This price spike might have just been the processors testing the numbers to see how many there are and what that will mean for their future kill schedules.
“There was nothing on the demand or supply side which suggested such a large jump in prices should have occurred.
“That being the case, with a slightly better read on lamb availability, we believe prices will now ease through the next couple of months — similar to the pattern in 2019 — and head back towards 800¢c/kg.”
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