Lamb continues to soften

The market is crumbling on reduced processor activity while export sales stay low and demand for higher priced cuts of lamb is limited.

Quality counts: Prices for lambs continue to soften with the emergence of some new season suckers.

LAMB  prices  continued  to weaken as the market crumbled on reduced processor activity, bigger numbers of old lambs and the emergence of some new season suckers.

Price corrections of $10 to $20 a head were recorded at most major saleyards in the past week, taking a lot of lambs below 800c/kg on a carcass basis.

The mutton market also weakened despite extremely low winter yardings.

On the supply side, reports suggested processors received good numbers of lambs direct as farmers try to lock in a price amid falling saleyard rates, with teething and the looming start of the sucker season also a pressure point.

One Ballarat agency told The Weekly Times they had booked 3000 heavy lambs to a southern exporter in the past week.

The latest available slaughter figures (for the week ending June 19) show an uptick in production, with nearly 265,000 lambs processed.

That was 12 per cent more than the previous week, although kill levels are still well below year ago levels, according to Meat and Livestock Australia data.

Feedback from buyers is that export sales of lamb remain slow, with limited demand for higher-priced cuts of lamb that usually sell into restaurants and food service.

At Bendigo on Monday major exporters Thomas Food International from South Australia and Fletchers from NSW did not field buyers.

Those processors have been key buyers in recent weeks.

Lamb prices were quoted as $10 to $20 a head cheaper at Bendigo on Monday, with the National Livestock Reporting Service noting that heavy lambs and secondary presented types in long woolly skins were most affected.

The top price of $266 a head was achieved twice for big lambs estimated around 38kg carcass, bringing them out at about 690c/kg based on a $3 to $4 skin.

Most of the big export lambs over 30kg carcass made from $220 to $250 head at Bendigo, and this result was consistent with Corowa in southern NSW on the same day, which reported a range of $226 to $255. The trade and heavy trade lambs tracked from $180 to $220, with farmers needing lambs sized 26kg or better to push above $200.

NLRS reports show a lot of lambs trending at 700c-800c/kg carcass, with only the sweetest domestic types weighing around 20-22kg selling higher at up to 850c/kg.

At the close of selling on Monday night the national saleyard indicator for heavy lambs (22kg plus) slipped to 814c/kg, which is now 124c/kg below the ruling rates of last June.

The indicator for trade lambs was at 857c/kg to be 32c down on 12 months ago.

At the same time, the mutton market has corrected down to 624c/kg carcass, although at sales earlier this week most sheep were quoted as selling below 600c/kg.

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