Sheep slightly dearer at Bendigo Market on Monday

New season lamb supply continued to flow in at Bendigo, although there was a drop of approximately 6,209 lambs, with 21,791 head sold. Quality was mixed from good heavyweight young lambs, many trade weights to some plainer lambs showing dryness in their skins. A full field of buyers attended as the market did fluctuate at times, with the better quality lambs suiting processors selling slightly stronger and maintaining their prices on last week with plainer and lighter lambs selling easier. Light lambs sold $3 to $5 lower although the better quality light trade weights sold unchanged, medium weight lambs were from firm to $3/head dearer, and heavier well-covered lambs sold firm to a few dollars stronger. Restockers coming from Rainbow, Shepparton, Ballarat and locally paid mostly from $67 to $130, to reach up to $158/head.

Lightweight 2 score young lambs to the processors made from $84 to $114, averaging 650c, light trade weight 2 and 3 scores sold from $114 to $135/head, as they averaged 680c/kg cwt. Medium trade weight new season 3 score lambs, 19-20kg cwt, made from $136 to $153/head, to average 700c/kg cwt. Heavier medium weight 3 score drafts sold from $152 to $173 and the heavy trade weight lambs sold from $170 to $188/head, averaging from 720c to 725c/kg cwt. Heavyweight 3 and 4 score lambs sold from $189 to $204 and the heavy export 4 scores sold from $197 to $218/head, with carcase prices averaging between 725c and 735c/kg cwt. Medium weight old lambs made from $136 to $150, with the heavy old lambs selling from $146 to $190 and the good quality hoggets making from $125 to $158/head.

The sheep offering of 14,290 head was of improved quality, that ranged from mostly good to average and sold to more demand with most of the light and medium weight mutton selling between $5 and $10/head dearer. Heavy Merino ewes also sold $10 higher and the heavy crossbred ewes were from $10 to $15 stronger as Merino wethers of medium to heavy weight sold firm to $4/head better on last week. Light 1 and 2 score sheep sold between $30 and $79/head. Merino mutton averaged 340c/kg cwt, while the very light 1 score pens sold from $5 to $54/head, with prices averaging from 130c to 277c/kg cwt. The medium weight sheep 2 and 3 scores sold from $72 to $106/head with the Merino ewe mutton averaging 370c/kg cwt. Heavy crossbred 3 and 4 score ewes made from $106 to $145, to average 360c and heavy Merino ewes sold from $96 to $138/head, to average 405c/kg cwt. Heavy Merino wethers sold from $105 to $134, with medium weights making to $94/head, as they averaged between 400c and 420c/kg cwt. Rams of all breeds sold from $20 to $66/head