Sheep producers get welcome price reprieve

Significant rainfall in some areas coupled with public holidays saw yardings ease, allowing some more positive price movements.

As of Tuesday restocker lamb was up 31c week-on-week to 323c, heavy lamb 29c to 491c, Merino lamb 41c to 313c, trade lamb 24c to 470c, light lamb 57c to 364c and mutton 20c to 149c.

Riverina Agents director James Tierney said it was nice to see a dearer market in Wagga Wagga, with prices up $10 to $30 for lamb and between $10 to $50 for sheep.

"Numbers have all risen this week after that," he said.

"There was more processor activity last week, probably due to a bit of wet weather that would have stopped a few stock moving around during the week.

"This week better end lambs might hopefully be similar, but I doubt mutton would be as dear as it was last week."

Episode 3 market analyst Matt Dalgleish said strong export numbers for September were another positive sign for the industry, with total lamb export volumes only easing one per cent, after a record month during August.

"The US has increased their appetite for Australian lamb back to similar levels that we saw this time last year, which was quite strong," he said.

"I guess the pricing situation is making us quite competitive and mutton was still very strong as well, with China driving the increased demand there."

During September 7,158 tonnes of Aussie lamb was shipped to China, 2pc down from August but 32pc stronger than September 2022 volumes and 48pc up on the five-year September average.

Lamb exports to the USA were up 9pc from August at 6,854 tonnes swt, while Papua New Guinea took 2,263 tonnes swt, down 9pc on August but 89pc higher than the five-year September average.

The United Arab Emirates has also been strong, down 6pc from August to 1888 tonnes swt, but still 32pc up on the five-year September average.

"Some of the key Middle Eastern countries that take boxed product have rebounded a bit and they're quite price-sensitive, so the fact prices have got so low has probably spurred on some of those export markets as well," Mr Dalgleish said.

"We've soon good demand most of the year, but the last few months have been particularly strong so that's finally started to turn the dial a little bit and being connect some of that extra supply that's coming through with demand has probably helped.

Mr Dalgleish said the latest result mutton market may have turned the corner, but lamb pricing may still move sideways for a while yet.

"We've still got to get through this Victorian spring flush in terms of those additional numbers... that rain coming through has meant producers are not as desperate to turn off lambs quickly and can hang on a bit longer and be more selective," he said.

"That flush can maybe be spread over a bit more of a timeframe so hopefully that will mean the processors don't get too oversupplied at any one time."