A perfect storm of disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the traditional winter decline has had a major impact on lamb and sheep markets this week.
Yarding figures at Victorian centres in the past fortnight have slumped to record low levels at some centres and prices have also plummeted.
The major impact was abattoir closures and lockdowns as processors reduced their buying numbers and did not attend a number of sales.
Centres reported that as many as five major processors were absent or not operating.
Lamb prices were up to $50 a head down despite the small offerings in what some agents described as the toughest sales they had seen.
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MLA's National Livestock Reporting Service reported that the Hamilton Regional Livestock Exchange penned just 502 lambs and 255 sheep, compared with the equivalent sale in 2019 when 4153 lambs and 1326 sheep were penned.
Following a record low yarding a fortnight ago, the Bendigo Livestock Exchange yarding did recover this week to around 10,000 but that was still down from 2019 when there were 14,677 lambs yarded.
Ballarat's lamb yarding fell from 12,677 in 2019 to 8940 this week while sheep numbers fell from 4462 in 2019 to 2900.
At Horsham agents yarded just 602 lambs and 1974 sheep, down from 5130 and 2288 respectively.
Corowa agents yarded 17,167 lambs (13,050 in 2019) and 3074 sheep (4650). The lamb yarding included some drafts of sucker lambs that sold to good inquiry.
Wagga Wagga, NSW, bucked the southern trend on a yarding of 22,000 lambs and 8000 sheep. NLRS reported lambs sold generally firm on good demand.
