Lamb yardings: Number of lambs being sold in Ballarat, Hamilton down

The major yards saw a dip in recent numbers, but that’s set to change. See why.

Southern lamb yardings are expected to lift in the lead-up to Christmas after a slow start to sucker turn-off.

Figures from the National Livestock Reporting Service show from the start of October, yardings at Victoria’s two major southern lamb selling centres were down.

For the five-week period from October 1 to now, Ballarat yarded 62,636 lambs, down about 23 per cent on last year which in turn was a slow spring turn-off.

But in a reflection of the tough winter, more of the market fell into the lighter lamb category at Ballarat this year (39 per cent) compared to last year (22 per cent).

Hamilton’s offerings were also back, to just 2574 lambs offered from October 1 to November 4, a fall of 62 per cent, but this week will see a big jump in offerings according to Hamilton Livestock Exchange manager Chris Dahlenburg.

The lead-up to Christmas will see a leap in yarding numbers.

He said Hamilton is expected to yard 15,000 lambs tomorrow (Wednesday), a 10-fold increase compared to last week’s offering of just 1500 suckers.

Mr Dahlenburg said the long winter and now good season mean there had been no pressure for any producers to off load lambs early.

“We did see old lambs sold earlier than normal but the big flow of suckers is about a week behind,” Mr Dahlenburg said.

“I keep telling people it’s only six weeks until Christmas but thanks to the good season, producers will be able to hold onto the tail end of their drafts and not sell them straight away.

“If it was a dry season, it would be a completely different thing but this year, we are expecting the sucker sales to be orderly.”

HF Richardson livestock agent Bernie Nevins said the lamb flow at Ballarat had been significantly slower this spring.

Weights of those which were yarded were also down and weighing for prearranged over-the-hooks sales showed some drafts of lambs were up to eight kilograms lighter than last year.

“We only have five more markets after this week until Christmas, so we would expect numbers to increase, but with the feed around, there is flexibility this year,” Mr Nevins said

“I would imagine that a lot of lambs will be shorn, and with summer crops and stubbles, turn-off will be pushed into the new year.”

Mr Nevins said the lower numbers in saleyards did not reflect a lift in over-the-hooks sales from what he had seen.

“I’d say similar numbers are going over-the-hooks and it’s more that we had a long winter, and a cool spring, the feed is there and while numbers are starting to pick up, the weight still isn’t in the lambs yet.”