Lamb prices are averaging higher: See the hits and misses for 2024
Prices are up but many battled to get to sale weight, compounding cashflow issues in a “very mixed 12 months” for sheep and lamb producers.
Sheep and lamb producers have celebrated much more buoyant returns for their livestock this year, but it’s been marred by drought-conditions in many parts of southern Australia and cashflow constraints.
Victorian Farmers Federation Livestock president Scott Young said it had been a “very mixed 12 months”, as a lack of rain meant a huge numbers were sold early, following very low prices last year, which made cashflow “very difficult” to manage.
“Although we’ve had challenges of drier times, there has been a turn around in markets and prices have picked up,” he said. “But cost of production and interest rates, council rates are still high.”
Mecardo analyst Olivia Agar said the trade lamb indicator hit 875c/kg in July, and now, at the start of summer, prices in this category were at 840c/kg, well above the rates producers were forced to take at this time last year of 550c/kg.
“Sheep have been more volatile, and mutton has been heavily discounted against lamb, given the low supplies,” she said.
The extra good news was the healthy prices were coupled with high processor throughput – and record high levels of production. “There are obviously good demand signals,” she said. While the Western Australian flock was shrinking, following the low point of the planned live export contributing to a forecast fall of 12.5 per cent in sheep sales in that state and record lamb turn-off, nationally only about a 1 per cent decline in the flock was tipped in the next year.
In saleyards, it was likely a large portion of lambs would be sold lacking finish over summer but producers should “keep an eye on NSW, a lot of store lambs went out and they have to come back in, from around February”.
Charles Stewart auctioneer Jamie McConachy, Colac, said it had been a “very, very challenging year” for producing and marketing lambs. While headline prices indicate “everyone is getting 900c/kg”, this was far from the truth, with many lighter weight lambs, lacking finish, trading down in the 600c/kg range.
“There is a gap of 300c/kg between the top and bottom lambs at the moment,” he said.
“It is a huge spread, pre-Christmas, normally at markets like Ballarat, it would be lane after lane of even, high quality lambs, but that is not the case this year, there is such variation.”
Meanwhile, for NSW stud breeder Isabele Roberts, Cudal, 2024 produced a terrific season.
But, she knows not all her fellow producers have secured timely, good rains. “We are very thankful,” she said.
“The biggest thing for me this year has been that prices have started to settle into a good pattern; what happened last year (price collapse) was a pretty big shock and it takes time to recover from that.
“The positive is what lessons can we take and where can we drive profitability – such as having genetics right so animals can grow fast,” she said.
“I’m excited to see what happens in coming years in the lamb industry; more people now see themselves as lamb suppliers, not producers, supplying targeted products.”
Ms Roberts said the big challenge for supply chains was to ensure producers got the right feedback “so we can do a better job”. “I think industry is at the start of a conversation on how that happens.”
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