Weekly Sheep & Lamb Comments - Week ending Friday 23rd June

AuctionsPlus commercial sheep and lamb listings slipped lower this week, driven mainly by a 50% drop in lamb listings to 8,684 head. The smaller yarding failed to ignite competition in the market which fell in line with offerings, as clearance reached a subdued 36% and value over reserve remained firm on last week at $15. Given the low offering, many categories didn’t produce a change on last week due to the small sample sizes, but for those categories that did, majority were back on last week apart from SIL first cross ewes and Merino wether lambs.

Table 1: AuctionsPlus National Weekly Sheep and Lamb Prices
Link 2: National Lamb Sale Results
Link 3: Tuesday National Sheep Sale Results
Report: Interactive Market Dashboard

Crossbred lamb offerings fell 23% this week to see 2,925 head, with prices also decreasing by $8 on last week to average $85/head - reaching 65% clearance. From Narrandera, NSW, a line of 750 June '22 drop Poll Dorset/Merino mixed sex lambs weighing 40kg lwt returned $90/head, or 228c/kg lwt.

Merino wether lambs registered a smaller offering with 2,712 head, with prices increasing on last week to average $57/head - up $6 for a 58% clearance. From Longreach, Queensland, a line of 780 Oct/Dec '22 drop Poll Merino lambs weighing 36kg lwt returned $60/head, or 166c/kg lwt.

SIL Merino ewes registered a smaller offering with 5,087 head, with prices decreasing by $23 on last week to average $96/head - reaching a 35% clearance. From Goolma, New South Wales a line of 560 Merino ewes aged 2.6 - 2.7 years of age and weighing 48kg lwt returned $115/head and will travel to a local buyer.

SIL first cross ewes jumped by $36 on last week to average $174 for the 1,566 head offered and reaching a final clearance of 36%. From Lara, Victoria, a line of 136 Border Leicester/Merino ewes aged 1.7 - 1.8 years old and weighing 65kg lwt returned $210/head and will travel to a buyer in Cara, VIC.

Note: Prices as at 5pm Thursday, 22nd June 2023

Table 1: AuctionsPlus National Weekly Sheep and Lamb Prices

AuctionsPlus Interactive Sheep Market Report