AUGUST rain might have put new season lamb supply on hold in the south, but agents agree the big winter wet has set up conditions for a buoyant spring.
Low numbers have built a strong market after an early August sucker influx, with wet weather at Wagga Wagga keeping some lambs out of the yards for three weeks.
At the close of trading on Tuesday The Land's Trade Lamb Indicator had hit its highest price for the year of 612 cents a kilogram (carcase weight).
R.H. Blake and Company agent Mark Logan, Wagga Wagga, said while rain had held off people from selling for three weeks, signs pointed to a bumper September.
"(At the August 25 sale) they did really well to get 10,000 new season lambs. That's up from 2500 a month ago," he said
"When we get a bit of sunshine they're all going to come pretty quickly.
"If we have a dry week, we can get up to 20,000 - and in a month we'll be up to 30,000 hopefully."
The mood was also buoyant in Forbes, where Kevin Miller, Whitty, Lennon and Company agent Luke Whitty hailed the state of pastures and the options it gave producers.
"You can't get any better than where it is now," Mr Whitty said.
"We've had terrific rain and we are going to have a colossal spring.
"That money for sucker lambs really has been outstanding.
"Blokes are selling lambs at 45kg for $130... last year that was probably the top of the sucker lambs.
"You would have had to have them closer to 60kg.
"If we didn't get this rain, it would have already started to dry up a bit, we'd probably see the lamb market back off from what it is.
"It gives guys a chance to get them away at the lighter weights instead of having to push them through to the heavier weights, taking up a lot of extra feed
Mr Whitty said low supply out of Victoria had also influenced prices.
"Numbers from Victoria and further south are pretty low - and a lot of the price sort of depends on them at the moment," he said.
In Tamworth, Davidson, Cameron, McCulloch and Company agent Daniel McCulloch said the new season lamb market was as strong as he had seen for 12 months.
"There's less around at the moment - I'm sure the numbers are still going to be there - but it is just a bit later than usual," Mr McCulloch said.
"The suckers are making $160-odd.
"Anything with any weight in it is well over 600c/kg.
Mr McCulloch said a number of farmers were value-adding their grain by putting it back into meat.
"Not so much lot feeding - there's not enough margin in it at the moment," he said.
"But grain prices aren't exorbitant, and anybody growing their own grain can value-add it by putting it back through their livestock."
At Dubbo, Carter, Lindsay and Weber agent Stephen Gay said sellers had been happy with sucker prices.
"(The lambs) have been around for the past eight to 10 weeks, and there's plenty of weight in them," Mr Gay said.
"The saleyards have been yarding 4000 to 6000 suckers every week and it's been increasing - most of those are going to supermarkets.
"The timing's been about the usual, nobody's in a huge rush.
"It's good to get $130 to $140 for suckers, but people are going to utilise the feed more and get weight into their lambs."
Mr Gay said prices in the north were tied to sucker movements in the south.
"We've had the southern processors up here competing pretty strongly for lambs, but it depends on what happens with them down there (in the south)," he said.
Suckers climb to $171 at Dubbo
DUBBO vendors cashed in on a strong sucker market on Monday with top new season lambs fetching a hefty $171 a head.
Syd Morris of Valley Fields Partnership, Wongarbon, got top price of the day with the best of his 136 second-cross suckers as vendors across the board benefited from low supply.
"Getting $171 was quite good - I would be surprised if anywhere else in state this week beat that kind of money," Mr Morris said.
"I think most of the other vendors at Dubbo would have been happy, too.
"They were getting about the $150 to $155 mark."
"It's not the first time we've seen prices top Forbes and Wagga, but (Tuesday's) were some of the highest I've seen."
Trade weight new season lambs at Dubbo were up $4 to $5, selling from $107 to $154/head to average 616c/kg (carcase weight).
Over 24kg (cwt) new season lambs sold from $162 to $171/head.
Mr Morris (pictured) said while he hoped to yard another 300 suckers in a fortnight, he wasn't expecting the market to be as strong.
"But because the (new season lamb) numbers will start to increase across the board, I don't think they'll come near the price we got this week," he said.
