Sheep and lamb prices: Volatility rocks markets

This time last year sheep and lamb prices were soaring. Now vendors are keeping an eye on market indicators in what’s quickly become a volatile selling environment.

A slight lift in saleyard values is doing little to encourage sheep producers to sell either lamb or mutton.

Falling prices responsible for market woes in the sheep and lamb industry in recent months appear to have plateaued in early sales this week.

Selling action at the Corowa lamb sale which was quoted as dearer thanks to a smaller yarding.

However, industry leaders warn the turnaround in prices tells the story of supply and demand as vendors hold back to “wait-and-see.”

Meat and Livestock Australia’s national mutton indicator kicked by 58c on Monday, but it is still behind by 261c compared to this time last year.

Riverina Livestock Agents director James Tierney of Wagga Wagga said he had no doubt there were plenty of sheep and lambs ready to sell, yet the market was being affected by the “spits and spurts” nature of selling.

Last week’s Wagga Wagga yarding dropped by 13,190 to 33,819 sheep and lambs, and mutton, which had suffered the biggest falls recently, rose by $30.

“It’s just volatile,” Mr Tierney said.

Graeme Cunningham from Walla Walla with Ken Thomas from Walla Walla, NSW, who sold second cross lambs to $212,20 at the Corowa lamb sale and described the market as volatile.

Ken Thomas from Walla Walla, NSW, sold shorn second cross lambs weighing about 58 kilograms liveweight for $212.20 at Corowa lamb sale on Monday, after averaging $210 for suckers he sold earlier.

Mr Thomas said he was prepared to take his lambs home from future markets if prices dropped too much.

“If you have lambs with weight and quality, they will be reasonably prices but you wouldn’t want to have anything that isn’t,” Mr Thomas said.

Fellow producers, brothers Rod and Mike Orton from Bowmans Forest and Murmungee, both have lambs to sell and plan to watch markets trends at Wagga Wagga to work out whether to sell the following week.

Rod Orton from Bowmans Forest and his brother Mick Orton from Murrumgee, who was selling crossbred lambs at the Corowa lamb sale.

“Both of our top prices this season to date have been $40 lower than this time last year,” Rod Orton said.

“We’ve been through the boom and there’s no guarantee what we will get this year.”

The ANZ’s latest agri commodity report said sheep markets were “coming off two consecutive years of strong production and flock recovery, following good seasonal conditions across much of the nation’s sheep production zones”.

“The plentiful yet volatile supply is forecast to continue across both lamb and mutton categories, which is likely to keep fluctuating prices the norm from week to week,” ANZ Agribusiness sssociate director Alanna Barrett said.