Supermarkets and key exporters not as active at lamb sales

Agents say there are fewer quality slaughter lambs coming out of NSW, with many light store lambs still being finished. Find out what the big sellers were at this week’s saleyards.

Declining numbers: Supermarkets and key export companies weren’t as active at saleyards this week.

THERE were mixed signals from the lamb market in early trading this week, with supermarkets and key export companies not as active at saleyards.

Prices begun the week just holding on for the best slaughter lambs in short skins, while most of the plainer bred and conditioned types showed an easing trend.

At this stage there have only been slight corrections evident in the national indicators, with trade lambs listed at 837c/kg earlier this week, to be 10c easier than late last week.

Heavy lambs (22kg plus) closed at 842c/kg to be unchanged.

Within those figures are price variations based around location, with northern markets outpacing southern regions this February.

The latest data is also showing a shift to heavier carcass weights in lambs.

When prices are broken down by area, NSW is easily the dearest state, according to figures collated by the National Livestock Reporting Service.

Heavy lambs are currently listed at 865c/kg in NSW, compared with 824c/kg in Victoria while in South Australia they are tracking just under 800c/kg.

Feedback suggests there are fewer quality slaughter lambs coming out of NSW at present, with a lot of the light store lambs that sold into the area in the spring still being finished.

Trade lambs in NSW are at 861c/kg against 838c/kg in Victoria.

What also shows up in the data is a shift to heavier kill weights, with agents reporting producers are taking lambs to bigger weights to help create a margin from high priced store stock.

The good season is also aiding weight gain.

The following is a breakdown of the number of lambs assessed by NLRS reporters by weight category. During the month of January there was:

●35,877 shorn export lambs over 30kg sold at the major, to be up significantly on the

● 27,588 in the saleyard system the same month last year;

● 49,020 heavy lambs in the 26-30kg category to be similar to last year’s level; and

● 41,006 heavy trades 24-26kg, up on the 38,577 last January.

The opposite supply trend is evident for light lambs, with just 8,459 lambs assessed at 18-20kg last month to be down more than 50 per cent on the 17,673 sold 12 months ago.

There were some big weighted lambs available at all centres in the past week, leading to a top of $331 at Wagga Wagga.

But such high money has been limited, with most saleyards reporting price of $230 to $275 for most big export lambs.

The best heavy lambs, 24kg to 28kg, mostly $200 to $235.

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