Lamb market lost momentum at Bendigo

Not a member of Farm Tender yet? Join the others and register here.

List your commercial Sheep, Cattle, Rams or Bulls on Farm Tender. We now cater for Agents ($1/hd Sheep, $7/hd Cattle if you sell), as well as our usual Private Sellers (3%).

Yarding - 28,450

Modest decline in lamb numbers down to 22,200 head. While there is some very good young lambs coming through, a lot were only borderline for carcass finish and fat cover particularly in the trade weight categories. Buyers gave the best support to heavy lambs over 26kg cwt that were properly fat. Bidding was very selective over trade lambs. The best heavy lambs held their value while the general yarding of processing lambs lost $5 to $15 head, some pens dropping up to $20 on a week ago as the market lost momentum late in the auction.

Export young lambs over 30kg cwt $232 to a top of $266. The majority of the 26-30kg cwt pens $206 to $240, followed by the best 24-26kg unshorn lots at $190 to $217/head. As a rule it took a good 26kg plus lamb to make over $200/head in this sale. The category of stock to struggle today were the washed out trades at 22-24kg cwt which made from $160 to $188/head. Unlike last week there was no Ballarat restocking support for some of these trade lambs to shear. Lighter trade lambs 18-21 cwt $135 to $160/head. Most processing lambs were estimated to be costing from 760c to 800c/kg cwt. Store lambs to the paddock $104 to $140/head and there was still some strong sales of very small lambs at times.

Heavy sheep gained $5 to $10 as an extra processor stepped into heavier mutton. Big crossbred ewes $140 to $165; heavy Merino ewes $135 to $158. Light sheep $105 to $128 with the plainest pens down to $84/head.

https://www.bendigo.vic.gov.au/Services/Bendigo-Livestock-Exchange