Lambs hit $280 in pre-Christmas market surge

The best lambs are making $280 so what does it take to get prices like this? We talk to the vendor who did it.

Christmas came early for lamb producers on Monday with a $280 market top reward for those who fed stock.

While Bendigo took the honours for the top price at the start of this week, Corowa’s offering was not far behind where the best lambs made $270.

Vendor Ken Thomas from Walla Walla, NSW, said the $270 paid for his lambs on Monday was his season’s best, in a market that had not followed the normal pattern.

Ken Thomas from Walla Walla, NSW, sold lambs to $270 at the Corowa lamb sale on Monday. He sold woolly lambs six weeks ago for $205 and was disappointed, but said the rates had picked up a lot since then.

“I sold really good woolly lambs six weeks ago and made just over $200 and I was disappointed with that at the time,” Mr Thomas said.

“So we shore the lambs, and six weeks, later, they have made a lot more.”

The lambs were all more than 65 kilograms liveweight, were April-May drop and were sired by White Suffolk rams out of first cross ewes. They were running in a lucerne paddock with plenty of shade and fresh water, and had access to hay and grain.

Mr Thomas, who has been a lamb breeder since the 1970s, said this week’s price was not far away from his all time high of $300.

“We’ve never seen prices like these so close to Christmas,” he said.

“It shows there is a shortage of good lambs.”

Fellow vendors the Hammon family from Boomahnoomoonah sold a run of March/April-drop second cross lambs, weighing more than 55 kilograms liveweight, for $250.

Three generations of the Hammon family were there to see their lambs sold at Corowa this week with Peter, Wally, 13, and Anthony, from Boomahnoomoonah, pleased with the $250 they were paid. The lambs weighed more than 55 kilograms liveweight, and had an estimated carcass weight of 26 kilograms.

Peter Hammon said the price was $10 more than he expected to get, and described rates as very good in the lead up to Christmas.

“These have been on grain and we’ve been feeding barley and lupins - the buyers are looking for weight,” he said.

And while there’s plenty of money for those who can sell the best lambs, there are still those who are looking to stock up on unfinished types to fatten and sell later.

Richard Leahy from Howlong, NSW, said the key to making money was the buy in price.

“We actually made money out of lambs last year, despite the lower sale price, because the buy in price was right,” Mr Leahy said.

“It’s all about the difference between the buy and sell price.”

Richard Leahy from Howlong, NSW, and his twin grandsons Charlie and Billy, 5, at the Corowa lamb sale.