Better quality Southern Lambs help to lift prices at Bendigo
- By: "Farm Tender" News
- Ag Tech News
- Oct 22, 2018
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Yarding - 36,247 (+5008).
Lambs - 22,247 (-1853).
Sheep - 14,000 (+6861).
There was just a slight dip in lamb supply down to 22,000 head, 1,800 less. Quality was very good across the young lambs as first draft stock from areas south of Bendigo, which have had a better season, start to appear. However, the key driver of the market was demand, with several processors showing a lot more desire to purchase numbers this week. Price improvements of $10 to $20 were common across all weights and grades of lambs, with some pens showing rises of up to $30/head at times.
Heavy young lambs sold to a top of $240/head for an export pen estimated at around 29kg cwt. The dearer trend of the sale meant a lot more lambs pushed back over $200, with the main run of unshorn crossbreds in the 24-26kg cwt category making from $200 to $236 to average approximately $220/head. The next weight down, 22-24kg cwt, sold from $186 to $220 to average $205/head. The lighter young lambs, weighing 18-20kg, sold from $130 to $169/head, with premiums paid for pens that displayed more newness and fat cover. On a carcase basis these good processor lambs started close to 780c, with the majority recording estimated averages of 800c to 830c/kg cwt. There weren’t many good lines of well-bred small lambs to suit restockers and the specialist Ballarat orders, which had been purchasing bigger framed lambs in recent weeks, just watched the market. Most small lambs to the paddock sold from $90 to $116/head in a dearer result.
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The yarding of old season lambs was very mixed, reflecting the final drafts that are being sold. There were some recently shorn young trade weight lambs that reached $214/head to be estimated close to 800c/kg cwt.
Sheep numbers bounced back up to 14,000 head, nearly double the number of a week ago. There was plenty of weight across the offering, led by some big lines of extra heavy crossbred ewes. All the usual processors followed the market and price averages were generally similar to the last sale, some categories lifting slightly, while others showed just a modest correction. Extra heavy crossbred ewes sold from $135 to $165, with heavy Merino ewes making from $115 to $146 to average approximately $133/head. Most medium and light sheep sold from $84 to $125/head. The good lines of Merino mutton were estimated to average from 450c to 460c, while the heaviest crossbred ewes worked out approximately 420c/kg cwt.
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