NUMBERS have started to contract at the Wagga sheep and lamb sales.
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On Thursday vendors sold 26,000 sheep and lambs, which was 10,720 less than the previous week.
According to Meat and Livestock Australia’s (MLA) National Livestock Reporting Service market reporter, Leann Dax, quality was mixed across old trade categories, which resulted in some bigger price variance over some classes.
Extra-heavy lambs were in short supply and pen lots 30kg plus ignited the bidding to record a top price of $210/head.
- Leann Dax
She said not all export or most domestic buyers attended.
“There was also strong northern restocker competition for lighter weight new season lambs,” she said.
New season lambs sold to stronger demand, with bidding from major domestic buyers more consistent new season trade lambs generally sold up to $2 to $4/head dearer.
The better presented trade lambs made $140 to $172/head averaging 630c/kg cwt.
Old trade lamb prices were plainer in condition, which caused prices to fluctuate.
Shorter skinned trade lambs again attracted the strongest bidding.
The better finished old lambs sold at $133 to $158/head.
Heavy lambs sold to weaker price trends due to the lack of quality types, averaging 601c/kg cwt. Extra heavy lambs were in short supply and pen lots 30kg plus ignited the bidding to record a top price of $210/head.
Extra heavy lambs averaged 594c/kg cwt. It was a smaller yarding of mixed quality sheep, with reasonable numbers of heavy sheep. Heavy ewes averaged 382c/kg cwt.
Trade sheep sold up to $14/head dearer as all buyers struggled to acquire loads. Trade sheep sold from $92 to $125.20/head.
EXPORT MARKETS: Australian lamb exports in June were valued at $161.4 million, up 9 per cent on the corresponding month last year (ABS). This brought the 2015-16 fiscal year total to $1.78 billion FOB which was fairly similar to the previous year, although 35 per cent higher than the five-year (2010-11 to 2014-15) average.
According to MLA the total volume of lamb exports for 2015-16 was also similar year-on-year, at 241,913 tonnes, although there were greater volumes of lamb shipped to some of the more price sensitive markets, such as Papua New Guinea and China (DAWR). This contributed to the export unit value ($/kg) averaging $6.78/kg for the fiscal year.
