Weekly Sheep & Lamb Comments - Week ending Friday 15th March

AuctionsPlus commercial sheep and lamb listings jumped 20% to 77,452 head this week, with an extra 212% of Merino Wethers and an extra 153% of Shedding Breed Lambs hitting the market, while the SIL First Cross Ewes and NSM Merino Ewes offering dropped around 60%.

The larger offering was met with a 19 percentage point drop in the clearance rate to 42%. Value Over Reserve rose by $3 to average $6 across all listings.

Crossbred Lambs fell $5/head this week with the crossbred lamb indicator also falling 5% to $100/head. Lamb prices were mixed with all categories making small movements either up or down. Joined Ewes were also mixed with a fall of $23/head for SIL Merinos and a lift in SIL and SM Shedding Breed Ewes. NSM First Cross Ewes fell $62/head. 

Listings fell in Queensland but lifted 5459 head in South Australia, to a total of 11,993. Purchases fell in all states. Processor purchases declined this week, with just 1507 head of Ewes and Wethers snapped up.

Table 1: AuctionsPlus National Weekly Sheep and Lamb Prices
Report: Interactive Market Dashboard

Crossbred Lambs registered a 2% smaller offering in head, with prices falling $5 on last week to average $100/head for a 52% clearance. From Griffith, NSW a line of 172 Poll Dorset/Composite mixed sex Jun/Jul '23 lambs weighing 41.5kg lwt returned $131/head, or 315c/kg and will travel to a buyer in Orange, NSW.

The 2,718 Merino wether lambs offered this week was a 212% increase on last week's auction. Prices responded favourably to the increased supply, with a $24/head increase compared to last week and a 78% clearance rate. From Charlton, VIC a line of 349 Poll Merino wethers April/May '23 and weighing 51.6kg lwt returned $121/head, or 234.5c/kg and will travel to a buyer in SA.

4605 Merino Ewe Hoggets were offered this week, up 14% from the 4,052 offered last week. Prices were steady to record an average price of $91/head. It didn't help clearance however, which only managed 24%, dropping even further than the 36% clearance in this category last week.

Note: Prices as at 5pm Thursday, 14th March 2024