Lamb prices improved at Bendigo

Yarding - 15,630

A slight increase in lamb supply to 9630 head but a significant drop off in quality in one of the plainest winter yardings seen at Bendigo for some time. There was very few lines of well finished lambs showing weight and fat cover, the majority being smaller mixed lots in untidy skins. The result was more concentrated bidding on any reasonable lambs, particularly the trade weighted pens suiting supermarket orders which gained $20 and more in places. The general run of plainer lambs improved by $5 to $20/head in a difficult sale to generate accurate quotes due to how mixed the yarding was.

Just a few pens of export weighted lambs sold from $246 to a top of $270/head. There was some strong sales at $209 to $238/head for the best heavy trade lambs which sold above 900c/kg and into the high 900c/kg cwt range at times. Two trade weighed pens of new season lambs sold at $215 and $229/head for a pen estimated at 23kg cwt to also be in the high 900c/kg cwt cost range. Underneath this was a lot of wintery and long-woolled light and medium trade lambs from $135 to $190/hd at varied rates from 750c to 880c/kg cwt depending on quality and number in a pen. Lightweight crossbred lambs mostly $70 to $132/head with less restocker interest on these.  

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There was a lot of Merinos in this yarding, and price outcomes for these varied around quality and fat cover. The heaviest pen up around 30kg cwt sold to $238; most of the medium tradeweight Merinos from $146 to $178, the better types trending above 700c/kg cwt. Light weight Merino lambs mostly $60 to $115/head.

Results were mixed in the sheep. The heaviest ewes were cheaper at $92 to $130/head on a lot of weight at times and the majority were purchased by one exporter. However good lines of trade and light mutton were dearer at $60 to $115/hd in a sale that opened strongly before loosing some momentum late in the auction. The price spread over the main grades of mutton was 350c to 450c/kg cwt.

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