Lamb oversupply takes edge off returns
Producers pushing more lambs into saleyards have triggered a huge increase in supply, with some numbers doubling or even tripling at main auction centres.
PRODUCERS pushed more lambs into saleyards, causing a mild price retreat from the hot prices recorded when the market first opened this New Year.
Most saleyards reported cheaper rates over tradeweight lambs, with the best heavy shorn lambs holding their value.
It showed in the latest saleyard price indicators, with heavy lambs listed at 853c/kg carcass weight earlier this week (6 cents down on late last week), while tradeweight lambs were 873c/kg (down 16c).
It followed a big surge in supply, with numbers doubling or even tripling at major auction centres.
Bendigo yarded 27,000 lambs earlier this week to be nearly 20,000 up on the previous week, according to data collected by the National Livestock Reporting Service.
At Corowa lamb numbers lifted to 14,000 or 8000 more. Further north Dubbo opened this New Year with 11,000 lambs.
The buying focus shifted to shorn lambs, with these offering buyers the best carcass performance and weight.
The NLRS said there was an impressive run of heavy shorn lambs at Bendigo, most weighing above 26kg cwt to super heavies up around 38kg in the export run. The heaviest of the shorn lambs sold to $285, with about half a dozen pens over $270.
Most of the heavy export lambs over 30kg sold in a range of $240 to $265.
With the good weights of lambs, the estimated carcass cost was from 750c/kg to 800c/kg, for a ballpark average of 780c/kg over a mixed run.
Shorn lambs in the 24-30kg bracket benefited from both domestic and export competition and tracked over $200, with a lot of pens punching out between $210 to $240.
On a carcass basis nicely weighted heavy lambs averaged between 810c/kg to 850c/kg cwt.
Other saleyards reported similar results earlier this week, with the top heavy lambs at Corowa selling to $265 and to $275 at Wagga Wagga last week.
Feedback from buyers suggests heavy shorn lambs are selling well due to a lack of finish and weight in woolly sucker lambs still being sold out of southern areas.
Buyers told The Weekly Times that feed growth had become too rank and long for lambs in areas of the Western District, and lambs weren’t performing as anticipated.
There were reports of farmers struggling to fill loads booked in direct to supermarkets and other processors. At saleyards, buyers were wary of woolly lambs, particularly those that have gone dry in the skin.
Carcass rates for woolly lambs have generally been at lower price points to shorn stock, the exception being any well finished domestic lambs.
All saleyards are reporting limited numbers of well finished lambs in the 20-23kg weight range, which is the preferred buying weight for many of the top domestic orders.
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