While South Australia saw two completely different winter and spring seasons, the end result was the same – and in a positive sense.
The north and west of the state saw a late start to the season with many locations not seeing the “break” to the season until July (coupled with June being the driest on record).
In the south-east of the state there was a fantastic start to the season in early autumn which followed through to what many areas consider the best winter/spring season on record.
The south of the state saw an excellent rainfall and feed season, most parts of the north and west of the state found themselves short on both, at least until early-mid spring.
The one similarity was the inability to finish/fatten sheep and lambs (in particular) into the spring.
Both areas found the ability to get weight into their new season lambs was impacted, resulting in lambs being four to six weeks behind what they would expect in an “average” season.
West coasters and mid-north farmers were impacted with a shortage of feed.
Conversely the south-easters were impacted more-so by lush feed, damp conditions lack of sunshine.
Thankfully this was more than compensated by exceptionally strong lamb and mutton prices.
Basically, the new season crossbred lamb prices have remained at record levels over the spring hanging in at or above $6/kg.
The average was $1/kg better than for the same period last year.
At the same time mutton prices have remained at the $4-$4.50/kg levels over that period.
That was approximately 20-50c/kg better than the same period last year.
New season crossbred lamb prices have remained at record levels over the spring, hanging in at or above $6/kg. At the same time mutton prices have remained at the $4-$4.50/kg levels during that period.
Taking this into consideration, and with the knowledge that many light/store lambs have gone to “kill” both locally and interstate over the spring, the outlook for pricing for producers for the summer and winter months, look very promising.