Stand out Lambs make $8/kg at Ballarat

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Yarding: 56,580

Biggest lamb market for the season so far with 40,850 head yarded. And the dearest price outcomes for good trade and heavy lambs as competition between the major meat buyers intensified. The yarding did have a big component of light and store lambs under 20kg cwt, and the top lambs while of outstanding quality at times were much more limited in supply. All the main categories of young lambs and shorn lambs weighing above 24kg cwt averaged over 700c/kg carcass weight, with the market touching on 800c on occasion when buyers locked onto some of the neatest pens and ran prices on. Light and store lambs were generally firm to a few dollars dearer.

The lead pens of young lambs were mostly in the 26-30kg cwt range and sold from $180 to a top of $244, with the sale gaining momentum late in the auction. This pushed buyer costs to an estimated 730c to 760c/kg for runs of these heavy lambs. Heavy shorn lambs sold to $240 and were also well supported to average over 700c/kg. There was some price spikes in the good trade lambs, with the 24-26kg young lambs selling from $166 to $218. Once under 24kg cwt the market showed more price variance around quality and price averages were below 700c, although there was stand-out pens that made premiums of over 800c at times. Buyers were trying to shandy down their price averages by including some of the lighter and plainer trade lambs in their orders.

Light and store lambs under 20kg cwt had a good following of store and MK ‘bag lamb’ buyers. The price range for most 18-20kg cwt lambs was mostly $90 to $130/head, while the main run of small store lambs, 12-16kg, sold from $54 to $83 and averaged $69 to the paddock. Store buyers were from southern NSW, the Bendigo region, the Wimmera and Mallee and the local Ballarat area.

The mutton market was firm to a few dollars dearer, carcass rates trending between 180c to 220c/kg on most sheep. This put the majority of the crossbred and Merino ewes with weight in the range of $50 to $65/head. Plainer sheep mostly $30 to $40. Little processor interest in rams which sold down to $1.

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