DEARER one week, cheaper the next has been the trend for the lamb market in recent weeks.
But, that’s all set to change as more new season lambs begin hitting the market in the next few weeks, according to agents.
Gerrard Partners Livestock agent Mark Jolliffe, Young, anticipated trade lamb prices would begin to stabilise as greater numbers of suckers were turned off.
“There’s still quite a few older lambs about, but as those numbers decline, and the suckers take their place, the market will find its new level,” Mr Jolliffe said.
“The market was off $5 to $6 a head this week, but some of that was due to the numbers of old lambs still being offered.”
Christie and Hood agent Paul Alchin, Gilgandra, said sucker lambs were being offered at the Dubbo markets at the usual time of year, although possibly just a tad later.
"The dry season is making it harder to get lambs to marketable weights before the hot weather takes over," Mr Alchin said.
Dubbo draws lambs from a wide area, and Mr Alchin said the dry would make it difficult for producers to get new season lambs up to the required weights before hot weather took its toll.
"It's all weather driven at the moment,” he said.
“New season lambs are selling well and made up to $169 at Dubbo last fortnight and still made over $150 in Monday's market."
But Mr Alchin said there had been a drop in value of heavy lambs.
"Monday's market was terrible. It was $25 to $30 cheaper for heavies than the previous sale and it's driven by processors who realise that older lambs are reaching the 12 months of age and they need to be sold before they become hoggets,” he said.
"The lambs are prime and buyers know they have to be sold regardless of price."
Riverina Livestock Agents' Tim Drum, Wagga Wagga, said in the south suckers had been topping at $165 and have been "all shapes and weights".
"We've seen some big runs of the lighter lambs, but some of the best lambs have been weighing about 28 kilograms and they've been making about 600c/kg," Mr Drum said.
He described the season around Wagga as "quite reasonable" and as a result this year's sucker lambs were in better condition than last year’s lambs.
"The feed this year hasn't been so watery," he said.
Lamb quality tops, but prices still softer
AFTER week’s of market volatility The Land’s trade lamb indicator slipped below 600 cents a kilogram (carcase weight) again this week to settle on 594c/kg.
That was on the back of a dearer market last week, when the indicator was 614c/kg. The slip in the averages also meant trade lambs were 30c/kg cheaper than they were at this time last year.
Lamb supply eased by 13,350 head at the Forbes prime lamb sale on Tuesday, where 34,200 were offered, and of those about 12,850 were new season lambs.
But even though the supply was back, so too were the prices. The National Livestock Reporting Service quoted the new season lamb market back about $3 a head and topping at $166.
At Dubbo on Monday lamb supply hit 32,450 which was up nearly 5000 head on the week before. As a result the market for both old and new lambs was back as much as $22. Young lambs topped at $145 head.
The Cowra lamb market also followed the cheaper trend, however NLRS reported quality was very good. Young lambs topped at $158.