There was fierce competition across AuctionsPlus commercial sheep and lamb markets this week with clearance leaping 21 points to 86%. Buyer appetite was driven not just by the recent rain, it was also affected by listing numbers falling for the third consecutive week — down 6% to 67,7641. Demand was particularly high for lambs, which recorded a very strong 90% clearance for the 42,044 head on offer. The AuctionsPlus Australian Restocker Lamb Indicator has more than doubled in the last 11 weeks to $56/head from $27.
The strong demand returned a dearer market for lambs with all categories rising on last week, however, the NSM market did see some price variations, seeing three categories rising and two falling.
Market optimism may have pushed reserves ahead of market appetite however. Value over reserve declined $3 this week, to average $11 above set reserves. This week the insights team have calculated the average distance between starts and reserves, returning an average gap of 9.19% this week. This has come down from a high of 11.81% in the second week of November. Lots where reserves are set less than 5% above the start are currently averaging above a 60% clearance for 2023, whereas those that are 5-10% above a ranging between 55-58% in clearance. Any higher gap than those levels see clearance rates in the 30 and 40 percentage range.
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The drop in listings was attributed to a fall across all stock categories, with sheep falling 26%, joined ewes dropping 20%, NSM ewes falling 8% and lambs declining 3% on last week. New season lamb numbers were flat at 46,114 head and were extremely sought after returning a 90% clearance rate. New season prices also benefited from the strong demand, with the average price increasing $8 to $67/head.
Table 1: AuctionsPlus National Weekly Sheep and Lamb Prices
Report: Interactive Market Dashboard
Crossbred lambs were in high demand this week, returning a 92% clearance for the 27,606 head offered and prices rising $5 to average $66/head. From Holbrook, NSW a line of 230 Poll Dorset/Merino mixed sex May 2023 drop and weighing 51kg lwt returned $106/head, or 209c/kg.
First cross ewe lambs registered 4,157 head, returning a 90% clearance and averaging $81/head – rising $23 on last week. From Cooma, NSW the same vendor sold 1,645 first cross ewes which were split across seven different lots. Weighing 33kg and Jul/Aug 23’ drop these lambs ranged a tight $71 - $73/head and will see five lots travel into Victoria and two remain in NSW.
Merino ewe offerings reduced by 8% to total 4,842 head, and the smaller offering returned strong demand and prices with clearance hitting 98% and prices rising by $5 to average $94/head. From Perillup, WA a total of 969 Poll Merino ewes aged 3 years old were offered across three different lots by the same vendor. These ewes averaged 56kg and ranged between $52 to $55/head and all three lots will travel into New South Wales.
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Note: Prices as at 5pm Thursday, 30th November 2023
Table 1: AuctionsPlus National Weekly Sheep and Lamb Prices
AuctionsPlus Interactive Sheep Market Report