No joy with an easing Lamb market at Bendigo

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Yarding - 22,883

Just a 10pc increase in lamb supply to 18,733 head. Quality was again mostly on the plainer side with not a lot of weight or fat cover evident. A lot of pens lacked consistency, meaning some lambs in the draft handled OK but others were very plain and the varied quality did lead to price fluctuations. The market was $3 to $10 easier, with tradeweight and lighter lambs the most affected. Three of the lead domestic orders didn’t operate, the suggestion being they are accessing young lambs further south as numbers build. There wasn’t as much demand shown by export processors for MK or bag lambs compared to their volume buying of the past fortnight.

The limited selection of heavier young lambs over 26kg cwt sold to the best demand, easing $3 at $124 to a top of $159 at a ballpark cost of 470c to 520c/kg cwt. There was less buying depth on the 20-24kg cwt lambs and these fluctuated from $82 to $118, pulled back to averages of 420c to 460/kg cwt with just select pens higher at times. Restocking lambs were cheaper and buyers did step into some bigger framed types in the 18-20kg range which made from $64 to $90/head. The main run of average sized store lambs, 16-18kg cwt, sold from $55 to $85 to average $65 to the paddock. Restocking order were from Rainbow, Echuca, Shepparton and Bendigo. Meat processors paid from $50 to $72 for most MK style lambs. There was also a reasonable number of very small and immature lambs of various breeds which sold from $4 to $30/head.

The quality of the few old shorn lambs still coming through was very plain and these were cheaper.

Slight reduction in sheep numbers to 4150 head. Not all processors were active and competition for heavy mutton again revolved around one northern order. Heavy crossbred ewes were cheaper at $24 to $28/head at well under 100c/kg cwt. A stand out pen of heavy Merino ewes in a skin topped at $50 and some of the best presented Merinos with weight were dearer. There was also a stronger trend over some of the leaner tradeweight sheep. It meant a range of $20 to $35 covered most sheep sales regardless of weight.

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