Diminished pre-Easter yarding brings price bump

At Bendigo on Monday, lamb numbers were down to 13,774 and sheep to 4600 but prices were up by $10 to $20 for heavy and trade lambs.

Dubbo saw a similar trend, with lamb down to 11,960 head and sheep to 8570, with the lower supply driving some price improvement.

Elders Dubbo branch manager Martin Simmons said it was typical to see yardings to take a dip ahead of the Easter period but he expected things would be back to normal next week.

"The lamb market was slightly better than last week, with maybe a little bit more quality in the yarding here in Dubbo ... we're probably not seeing a lot of heavy lambs come through Dubbo right at the minute," he said.

"We are experiencing a high volume of Dorper lambs over the past month or six weeks and they've certainly been selling well and that was no different.

"All in all the lamb market was probably $5 to $10 dearer and that's probably for two reasons- improved quality and less numbers."

Mr Simmons said going forward he would expect that tighter winter supply would lead to further price gains.

"I don't think it will happen straight after Easter but I'm probably hopeful that as the year progresses and as we get into our traditionally dearer period we might see a bit of improvement," he said.

"While we're seeing some isolated heavy mutton come in that are selling well such as heavy Dorper sheep that reached $138, a good pen of heavy crossbred ewes that made $113... the mutton market has really struggled for probably over the last 12 months now.

"All we can hope for is a bit of improvement as the year wears on and hopefully the season stays in our favour to make that happen."

According to the newest ANZ's Agri Commodity Report heavy supply through February pressured the market, and both lamb and mutton indicators reduced by 15 and 25 per cent respectively, from the January peak in prices.

ANZ Associate Director of Agribusiness, Alanna Barrett said continual high throughput in processing plants has prices under some pressure.

"2024 lamb slaughter remains well above 2023 levels, which given the volume of lambs processed last year, is particularly significant," she said.

"Last year was record breaking for the Australian processing sector, with the total number of lambs processed in Australia just shy of 25 million head, up around 16 per cent from 2022.

"This leads many in the industry to query winter supply this year, whether there will be a tightening and corresponding price peak prior to new season lamb hitting the market."

"Looking ahead to 2024, we expect to see some stability in supply and pricing, however, with a large Australian flock, and large market swings in supply and price, sometimes in response to localised weather events, this may be determined by larger market influences".