A solid increase in lamb throughput saw both the Eastern States Trade Lamb Indicator (ESTLI) and National Mutton Indicator (NMI) finish two per cent lower.
MLA's yarding data revealed a substantial week-on-week increase in supply of lambs with east coast lamb yardings up 27 per cent to 97,000 head and sheep numbers lifted by four per cent to 28,000 head.
According to Mecardo's Adrian Ladaniwskyj, both figures are technically at half the volume of that the same time last year, but the week's aren't directly comparable because Easter was a lot later this year.
"All the extra supply last week emanated from New South Wales which was up 23,000 head on the week prior," Mr Ladaniwskyj said.
"The eligible yarding numbers for the national indicators provide a bit of a sneak peak at what the supply situation was this week.
"Not surprisingly there were huge increases across the board with heavy lamb numbers up 80pc, restockers up 171pc and trade lambs up 22pc."
Trade lamb prices softened 30 cents week-on-week however a 144c premium on the national average was recorded in Naracoorte, SA, due to restocker demand and pushing prices for lambs of a mixed quality.
The largest contributor for trade lambs was Hamilton, which was trading 14c under the national average and contributing 19pc of sales due to a strengthening in yardings to 22,000 head for lambs.
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Light lamb prices lost 21c to close at 787c/kg, but it was restocker lambs that felt the full brunt plummeting 70c to finish at 832c/kg.
Ballarat, which contributed 47pc of sales, was trading 8c under the national average.
Wagga Wagga, NSW, fetched the highest premium on the national average at 1068c/kg cwt, or a 215c premium on the national average.
Mr Ladaniwskyj said with the shorter weeks of Easter and Anzac day behind us, there should be a more complete resumption of normality in the market going forward.
And he said a stronger slaughter pace will help support prices as slaughter strengthened 2pc week-on-week, but is still 60,700 head less than this time last year.
"Last week's east coast slaughter figures crept up to 284,044 head, while sheep slaughter numbers leapt 18pc to 68,421 head," Mr Ladaniwskyj said.
"Despite the impact of Easter holidays and issues with Covid-19 infections, slaughter numbers were only 10-15pc off the pace set last year suggesting processors have tried their best to maintain production in the face of challenges."
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