AuctionsPlus commercial lamb and sheep offerings continue to gradually increase as 2022 gets back into routine, with offerings for the past week up 8%, to 100,368 head. With the higher supplies came a decline across most categories, with all lamb segments back on last week, as clearance rates remained patchy.
With a rare decline across all the six main lamb reporting categories, the largest fall was attributed to the shedding lines, which lost all of last week gains, as a reduction in the feature lines offered impacted top-end prices for the category. After last weeks $88 gain, shedding lambs averaged $106 lower, at $284/head, with a 67% clearance rate for the 3,029 head offered.
Across the two largest lamb categories, crossbred and Merino wethers, prices for the week eased back, albeit with higher clearance rates than last week, as vendors eased reserve levels into the final month of summer. Merino wethers, with 18,013 head offered sold to an 86% clearance rate, up from 83% last week, with the average price slipping $8, to $133/head. Similarly, crossbred lambs registered a higher clearance rate on last week, at 89% for the 17,256 head offered, as prices averaged $4 lower, at $156/head.
Buyer hesitancy continues to afflict the first cross ewe segment of the market, with another week of lower clearance rates, at 45% for the 8,944 head offered. On the back of last weeks $16 decline, first cross lambs averaged another $13 lower, to $145/head, ranging from a low of $150, through to $305/head.
For the proven breeding lines, the largest offering was for SIL Merino ewes, with the 9,112 head selling to 86% clearance rate. With a substantial jump in supply this week, up from only 3,647 head last week, SIL Merino ewe prices only declined $5, to average $274/head. With a similar trend, SIL first cross ewes slipped $8 back on last week, to average $356/head, again impacted by a significant jump in numbers compared to the previous week.
Going against the largely softer trend this week was higher prices through the NSM Merino ewe hogget and Merino ewe lines. With similar numbers to last week, NSM Merino ewe hoggets averaged $19 dearer, at $265/head, with a 98% clearance rate for the 5,693 head offered. NSM Merino ewes jumped $23 on last week, to average $220/head, with a 94% clearance rate. In contrast, NSM first cross ewes dropped $52 on last week, to average $235/head, with a very subdued 39% clearance rate for the 5,108 head offered.
NOTE: Prices as at 5pm, Thursday 3rd February 2022