LAMB prices have zoomed higher in the past week, hitting record prices again and lifting averages right across the board.
Heavy lambs sold for $276.20 a head at Wagga Wagga last Thursday, beating the past record price for lambs sold at Forbes a few day’s earlier of $260 a head.
The Land’s Trade Lamb Indicator surged to 704 cents a kilogram (carcase weight) this week, which was not surprising considering some lines of lambs in the past week have been selling for more than 800c/kg.
Average values for trade lambs are now more than 100c/kg higher than at the same time last year and last month.
At Griffith last Thursday heavy weight lambs hit $260, while at Cowra on Friday lambs topped at $250.
Highlights early this week included lamb at Corowa hitting $255; Dubbo’s lambs topped at $255; Tamworth hit a high of $236, and Forbes lambs topped at $246.
Rain boosts cattle market
CATTLE prices have been boosted in the past week with the Eastern Young Cattle Indicator surging to 504.75 cents a kilogram (carcase weight).
That’s nearly 35c/kg more than at the same time last month.
Rain across parts of Victoria and southern NSW during the past week helped to give the market a boost, according to Meat and Livestock Australia.
The dearer trend really ramped up last Thursday with sales such as Dubbo being nearly 12c/kg dearer, while Armidale rose an average of 32c/kg and Bairnsdale in Victoria was up 27c/kg.
By Tuesday this week some markets were as much as 30c/kg dearer. Carcoar’s young cattle market averaged 585c/kg – well above the EYCI.
MLA said most of the EYCI eligible cattle last week sold to feeder and restocker buyers, accounting for 45 per cent and 39pc respectively.
“There was a small rise in young cattle going to processors during the past week, from 13pc to 16pc,” MLA said.
While not taking the largest percentage, processors were paying a premium for their cattle, underpinning the lift in consignments, paying on average 4c/kg more than feeder buyers and 55c/kg more than restockers.