AuctionsPlus Insights on the Sheep, Lamb and Goat market – Queensland Focus

For Australian sheep, lamb and goat producers, AuctionsPlus Insights provides detailed and region-specific analysis into market trends and producer intentions. The following report details Queensland, and Longreach region specific trends, with a broader scope on the position of the market and the outlook for the remainder of the year.

Market Trends and Analysis: Longreach, Queensland - Goats

Key Trends

Across the fast growing and dynamically changing Australian goat sector, regular weekly commercial goat sales on AuctionsPlus since 2019 have provided encouraging insights and trends into producer intentions and the broader direction of the growing industry. With Southern and Western Queensland listing record numbers for the first two months of 2022, amplified by favourable seasonal conditions and buoyant prices across the market, the clear shift from opportunistic harvesting to a more calculated management program of goats is evident. Further underpinning the growing goat sector is the increasing demand for goat meat into major export markets, which is keeping prices on an upward trajectory.

Figure 1 highlights the skyrocketing AuctionsPlus goat numbers from Queensland producers, with monthly listings for January and February up 788% and 857% year-on-year, respectively. With the end of March fast approaching, Queensland goat listings year-to-date are on track to surpass total 2021 listing in the first three months of 2022 - further illuminating the rapid growth of the industry. While Rangeland goat listings consistently account for between 70-80% of the weekly commercial sale, a notable rise in Boer/Rangeland cross goats has evolved recently, particularly as producers place increased focus on breeding quality and carcass weights across goat enterprises.

In 2021, 56% of total AuctionsPlus goat listings came from NSW, with Western NSW the largest listing region. Queensland accounted for 41% of listings. However, on the purchasing side Queensland accounted for 64% of total purchases, with many Western NSW listings travelling interstate. Of the Queensland goats listed online in 2021, 75% remained in the state, while the remainder travelled south.

Heat mapping data from 2021 reflects Queensland as the “breeding factory” for goat listings (Figure 3) with the vast majority from Southern and Western Queensland regions.

Data from MLA weekly goat and lamb slaughter highlights the strong correlation between processing patterns across the two markets and depicts the rising momentum of goat slaughter for the first quarter of 2022. Goat slaughter levels are approaching back towards the record high levels of 2017-2019. The positive trendline of goat slaughter over the three-year period further reinforces the growing supply for goatmeat. When compared against the downward trending lamb slaughter levels, which are indicative of rebuilding intentions, the growth of goats and their resilience following processing disruptions highlights the resilience of the industry.

Market Trends and Analysis: Longreach, Queensland - Sheep and Lambs

Key Trends

An AuctionsPlus Insights analysis of historical data in the Longreach rangelands region has revealed distinct shifts in the breakdown of sheep and lamb categories for both purchases and sales. Merino production has long been the staple for sheep producers in the region, however a significant shift into shedding breed sheep – Dorper’s and Australian Whites, has been clear across the restocking purchases of Queensland buyers since the beginning of 2020. As highlighted in Figure 5, year-on-year AuctionsPlus shedding breed lamb purchases for Queensland increased by 79% in 2020, and a further 50% in 2021, while the overall proportion of Merino ewe and wether lambs has decreased since 2019 (Figure 6). While positive seasonal conditions have been the key catalyst behind increased sheep purchasing over the past two years, other factors including the difficulty to secure shearers, weighed up with the survivability, durability and price relationships associated with shedding breed sheep. Additionally, the increased exclusion fencing has reportedly sparked a large increase in purchasing trends in Queensland.

The flock rebuild has sparked a diversification of Queensland sheep enterprises, with many producers purchasing goats as an alternative, or adjunct to sheep, as well as a notable shift away from ‘traditional’ Merino enterprises. AuctionsPlus Insights data reveals rises in first cross ewe lambs, shedding breed lambs and composite/other breed lambs over the past five years, which has been supported by a return to positive seasonal conditions and the rapid growth of the sheep flock.

Although changes in breed proportions transacted online are clear, the Merino remains the foundation of the sheep herd in Queensland. A review of 2021 Queensland lamb listings (Figure 7) highlights that while Merino lambs account for 66% of total listings, crossbred and shedding breed lambs make up a considerable proportion of the states’ listings.

On the purchasing side, across 2021 the number of lambs purchased by Queensland buyers totalled 107,917 head – doubling year-on-year levels and higher than both 2019 and 2020 lamb purchases combined. The Longreach region was the largest sheep listing and purchasing region within Queensland (Figure 8).