Will market maintain lamb's Easter stimulus?

Dubbo yarded fewer lambs last week and the lower supply drove some price improvement.

Elders Dubbo branch manager Martin Simmons said it was typical to see supply take a dip ahead of the Easter period, but he expected things would be back to normal next week.

"The lamb market was slightly better than last week, with maybe a little bit more quality in the yarding here in Dubbo ... we're probably not seeing a lot of heavy lambs come through Dubbo right at the minute," he said just before the long weekend.

"We are experiencing a high volume of Dorper lambs during the past month or six weeks and they've certainly been selling well and that was no different.

"All in all the lamb market was probably $5 to $10 dearer and that's probably for two reasons - improved quality and less numbers."

Mr Simmons said he expected that tighter winter supply would lead to further price gains.

"I don't think it will happen straight after Easter but I'm probably hopeful that as the year progresses and as we get into our traditionally dearer period we might see a bit of improvement," he said.

Numbers lifted at Forbes on Tuesday and trade weight lambs sold to a firm price trend according to Meat and Livestock Australia.

The 20 to 24 kilogram pens sold from $120 to $158, while extra heavyweights ranged in price from $160 to $236.

Across the southern border in Victoria, Sheona Lamb from MLA said Ballarat's lamb market opened stronger and the sale gained more momentum and remained stronger.

"Light store lambs gained $10 to $15, light and medium trade sold $5 better and heavy trade gained $4 to $6," she said. Heavy export lambs sold to a top of $260 and gained $5 to $10.

Bigger supplies of lamb through February pressured the market according to ANZ's Agri Commodity Report, and lamb indicators reduced by 15 per cent from the January peak in prices.

ANZ Agribusiness associate director Alanna Barrett said continual high throughput in processing plants had prices under some pressure.

"2024 lamb slaughter remains well above 2023 levels, which given the volume of lambs processed last year, is particularly significant," she said.

"Last year was record breaking for the Australian processing sector, with the total number of lambs processed in Australia just shy of 25 million head, up around 16 per cent from 2022.

"This leads many in the industry to query winter supply this year, whether there will be a tightening and corresponding price peak prior to new season lamb hitting the market."

"Looking ahead to the rest of 2024, we expect to see some stability in [lamb] supply and pricing, however, with a large Australian flock, and large market swings in supply and price, sometimes in response to localised weather events, this may be determined by larger market influences".