WITH spring looming, the last month of winter did not deliver the much-needed rain that had been anticipated.
The lamb markets last week were inundated, with producers succumbing to mounting concerns about the weather.
This influence was obvious at the Wagga Wagga, NSW, lamb market on Thursday, when supplies of lightweight young lambs and light and medium trade lambs overwhelmed demand in a number of areas, leading to a sizeable portion being passed in.
Even when pens of well-finished new-season lambs in full bloom were offered, buyer demand was weak, with supermarket buyers seemingly the only companies prepared to throw an oar in the water.
It was a long way into the sale before the market found any sort of groove.
Light and medium trade-weight lambs tumbled by $19-$20, averaging 430 cents a kilogram, while heavy trades slipped $15 to average 444c/kg carcase weight.
When this narrow band of interest disappeared, the lighter end of young lambs sold at $72-$76.
TA Fields, Wyvern, Hay, NSW, offered 2700 advertised Merino-cross lambs - one of the highlights of the sale.
There were several local store orders in place for the lighter end, paying $59-$89.20, while the heavier portion sold to processors, making $82-$105.
There was still plenty of old lambs being offered and the plainer end were hard to sell with prices buckling $15-$22, with the trade lambs averaging 399c/kg and heavy lambs averaging 385c/kg cwt.
Despite the much lower prices last week, the Bendigo lamb market on Monday bucked this trend, with young lamb values $2-$6 higher.
Overall, lamb supply did diminish by 25 per cent, which helped drive demand in nearly all trade and export classes of new-season lambs.
A big influence across the trade market were the tighter supplies and strong competition from Coles and Woolworth buyers.
When the quality was there, these buyers paid up to $128 for lambs weighing 20-24kg, with sales averaging 500-520c/kg cwt.
Heavy lambs were scarce in number and sold at $128-$141 to average 505c/kg cwt.
Where the market came unstuck was for old lambs, with quality reportedly mixed.
Trade lambs were $1-$4 cheaper, averaging 488c/kg cwt.
Heavy lambs made $116-$128 to average 410-436c/kg cwt.
Mutton numbers increased by almost a third and prices were generally a few dollars lower, with heavy Merino ewes with very little skin holding their value better than other grades.
Medium and heavy sheep averaged 300-330c/kg cwt.
Brian Unthank Rodwell auctioneer Michael Unthank said the Corowa, NSW, lamb market consisted of 7500 lambs, of which 4000 were new-season lambs.
"New-season lamb numbers weren't as high as we expected, with some producers opting to hold lambs back after the carnage at Wagga last week," he said.
"Prices generally improved a few dollars on last week's rates, with heavy export lambs making up to $139 and trade lamb selling at $105-$125."
Mr Unthank said old lambs sold very well and made up to $126, with trade weights selling at $80-$110.
Just when observers thought the Ballarat lamb supplies couldn't dive any lower, they did.
Astonishingly, numbers more than halved, with agents penning only 2339 head.
However, sheep numbers managed to increase, with 5069 offered.
Trade-weight three- and four-score lambs sold at $88-$118 to average 446c/kg cwt.
The plainer yarding created some opportunities for restockers, who paid $71-$80 for light lambs and up to $125/head for a pen of crossbred ewe lambs to turn out.
Most of the sheep sold at 285-323c/kg but one pen of crossbred wethers made $120, which equated to 303c/kg cwt.
Heavy Merino ewes made $91-$95 and crossbreds sold at $80-$118.
