Heavy lamb prices slide

Good supplies of feed lambs, poor sales overseas contribute to fall in prices.

Market squeeze: Lighter and medium weight lambs are now returning as much as heavy lambs in dollar a head terms.

HEAVY lambs have had an unexpected winter meltdown, with official saleyard data showing a 30c/kg price correction in the past week.

Good supplies of feed lambs combined with poor sales overseas as coronavirus continues to disrupt restaurant and food service businesses are being blamed for the price falls.

Adding to the demand problems are maintenance shutdowns at export abattoirs as plants undergo scheduled repairs ahead of the new season flush of stock.

Price corrections of $10 to $20 were common across the heaviest export lambs at more than 30kg carcass weight.

It was evident at Bendigo earlier this week, which followed the trend at Wagga Wagga in the Riverina late last week.

At Bendigo, heavy lambs sold from $220 to a top of $261, with the National Livestock Reporting Service describing a big carcass price spread as buyers stepped in and out of the market, creating erratic results.

There was a range of 680c/kg-780c/kg quoted for these big lambs, for an overall average of about 750c/kg.

It was similar to the result posted at Wagga Wagga, where the 30kg plus lambs sold from $232 to $285 to average $250 at an estimated 749c/kg.

Those lambs are included in the national price indicator for heavy stock (listed at 22kg plus), which has now slipped back to an average of 832c/kg cwt.

This is now below the levels of last June.

The trade lamb indicator was listed at 870c/kg cwt.

The size of lambs is having a big bearing on price results.

Agents at Bendigo on Monday said the rule of thumb was any lambs weighing above 25kg cwt were cheaper, while the genuine domestic lambs were firm to even dearer in places.

For producers, it means light and medium trade lambs are returning nearly as much as the much heavier stock in dollar per head terms.

As an example, the best 22-24kg lambs averaged about $205 at Bendigo, compared with about $222 for a much heavier run of crossbreds from 26-30kg cwt.

In extreme cases it meant less than $20 for an extra 8kg of carcass weight.

Some of the freshest domestic lambs at about 20-22kg were still making more than 900c/kg earlier this week.

The sheep market also showed signs of easing in early trades this week as exporters lower production heading into the peak of winter.

At Bendigo some feature runs of heavy Merino wethers averaged an estimated 650c/kg, according to the NLRS, which still puts most sales from $190 to $240.

The saleyard indicator for mutton was listed at 667c/kg cwt.

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