Suckers have started to flow into the market

Sucker lambs are starting to appear in saleyards along with a swirl of questions around likely supply and condition from different regions, regarding price and skin values.

Sucker lambs are starting to appear in saleyards and with it has come a swirl of questions around likely supply and condition from different regions, regarding price and skin values.

Early sales have been positive because these suckers help to fill the market shortage of well finished trade lambs, quoted at up to 900 cents per kilogram carcass weight in the past week on limited numbers.

At Bendigo on Monday a lone pen of about 50 proper second-cross sucker lambs, off irrigation country at Boort, sold for $235 on an estimated weight of 25-26kg cwt. Good money but very good fresh lambs with selling agents reporting they were the top draft from more than 200 ewes.

And that comment goes to the heart of the initial feedback from agents – there will be some good sucker lambs to come forward, but there won’t be a lot of them and supply and quality will vary based around regional rainfall and feed conditions across the autumn and winter.

NSW is the area to watch coming into August and September, with pockets of this state enjoying favourable conditions. At Forbes yesterday (Tuesday) agents had drawn for 2400 new season lambs, an increase of 1000 head on the previous week when they sold to $238 to be quoted as tracking around 880c to 930c/kg by the National Livestock Reporting Service.

Luke Whitty, direct Kevin Miller Whitty Lennon & Co, said while some cold and wet weather had slowed growth rates some very good lambs were in the pipeline from the area.

“The lambs are out there and we have got feed in front of them and a lot have been put onto crops and will be very good,’’ he said this week: “How the price tracks could determine how quickly they come in, but hopefully things will settle down a bit and they will flow in reasonable numbers that processors can digest.’’

There has been sucker lambsreported at Wagga Wagga, Griffith and Bendigo in the past week.

Results have been in the 850c to 900c/kg for any good trade-weighted lambs.

At this money it takes a 23kg plus sucker to return over$200 per head, which is the drawcard dollar per head return a lot of producers look for when considering options for new season lambs.

But prices are under pressure, and the protection these early suckers have from the current

shortage of good quality trade weighted old lambs will eventually fade.

The average saleyard price for old season heavy and trade lambs has dropped below the 800c/kg threshold in the past week, according to NLRS data.

But while areas of NSW and the Riverina look promising for sucker lamb quality, there is more questions around how the new-season lambs from Victoria, and particularly the south-west, will shape up and flow into markets.

Nick Byrne, Nutrien auctioneer at Bendigo, said feedback from clients was lambs were two to four weeks behind where they usually would be: “I can’t see the Bendigo saleyards yarding 3000 suckers in the next month, which sometimes happens in early August.’’

Sucker lambs are starting to flow onto the market.

However, the caveats to this could be a flush of lambs out of the Riverina which are consigned into Bendigo, or lambs performing better off the shorter pastures as spring develops and the weather warms up.

Looking further ahead, there has been speculation of a lot of store conditioned or light sucker lambs to come out of the Western District later in the spring after the area endured a very dry and tough autumn and winter.

This could potentially put pressure on processors for good trade lambs towards Christmas when this area usually supplies big numbers of trade-weighted sucker. One agent suggested while producers generally feared the November and December period for young lambs with prices often retreating, he suggested it could be okay if spring rains eventuated and there was restocking support for light lambs amid restricted supplies of heavier weights.

If has happened before and a positive to emerge in the past fortnight has been robust demand for lightweight store suckers being sold on-line. There was 500 immature sucker lambs sold on the box last week at an average of 21.7kg liveweight for $122 per head which translated to a carcass cost in excess of $12kg. There was been other sales as high as $160 for small store suckers in the past week.

There has been some good trading results for lamb finishers this year which has put some

confidence back into the restocking market.

But there the outlook for skin returns from sucker lambs remains depressed. While sucker skins usually attract a premium, early indications are they will be worth just $1 to $3/head – but at least avoiding the disposal fee for no-value skins which is still happening across the industry.