Pre-Christmas lamb prices are shooting north at Hamilton and Wagga Wagga

The lamb market has gained even more traction in the past few days as processors get desperate for weight. See the details.

Lamb prices have held up and gained in places, despite a flood of numbers hitting the market in pre-Christmas sales.

Prices have continued to hit the gold standard 1000c/kg in massive sales at Wagga Wagga and Hamilton this week.

At the big Wagga Wagga sale in NSW today National Livestock Reporting Service’s Leann Dax said 40,000 lambs and 22,000 sheep included “very few lambs with weight, forcing buyers to up the ante lifting prices for trade and heavy lambs $10-$20”.

Restockers were also very active, she reported. Trade lambs were quoted to average 935c/kg carcass weight.

“Many lambs including light lambs broke the 1000c/kg barrier,” Ms Dax said.

“Store buyers were back and prepared to up the ante against processors for lambs under 19kg carcass weight.

“This set the stage for a volatile sale.

“In the trade market any lambs that were shorn and had plenty of shape regularly pushed through the 1000c/kg barrier.”

But, she said, the mutton market came under pressure with a few extra processors wanting heavy sheep.

Meanwhile, a near-record yarding was achieved at Hamilton saleyards this week, according to NLRS reporter Chris Agnew, who said 63,000 lambs were sold on Wednesday and 28,000 on Monday.

This yarding almost topped the highest number yarded at Hamilton in a day, which Mr Agnew said was 64,000.

Despite the numbers, Mr Agnew said there was “no issue with prices; last Wednesday there were a few making 1000c/kg, but there were more pens making that this week”.

Mr Agnew said the lambs produced in the Western District were exceeding expectations on quality and finish, despite the dry and difficult season experienced earlier in the year.

“Perhaps it has helped with some lambs, they haven’t been waterlogged, which can happen down here,” he said.

“In the last fortnight I have noticed they are drying off a bit in their skins, and we have seen some early-shorn suckers coming in.”

The 34,000 trade-weight lambs sold at Hamilton on Wednesday helped push the National Trade Lamb Indicator to 872c/kg, which is 230c/kg above the rates paid a year ago.

The heavy lamb indicator appears to have stabilised, tracking at 909c/kg.

This comes as the latest Rural Bank commodity insights report found domestic demand for Australian lamb has grown in 2024.

ABS data showed consumer lamb prices lifted 7.7 per cent in the last financial year quarter.

Year-to-date export volumes also remain strong, with 303.9 thousand tonnes exported to November, 2024, which is a 14 per cent lift in 12 months, and almost 30 per cent up on five-year averages.

A spokesman for Rural Bank said export growth was driven by Middle East and US buyers, who had bought 62 and 32 per cent more Australia lamb, on volume, in the past year.

Meanwhile, in the Rabobank December commodity review, senior proteins analyst Angus Gidley-Baird said trade lamb prices remained higher than the bank’s projections, possibly due to limited supply.

Looking to the coming months, as more slow-to-finish lambs came onto the market,

Mr Gidley-Baird said “we are not yet convinced that the volumes will be sufficient to cause prices to drop”.

The question remains regarding how many, and when, lambs bought by restockers would hit the market.