It has been a wet finish to the first month of spring in Victoria and NSW with big falls documented in the Riverina, making it one of the wettest Septembers in many years.
The supply of livestock journeying to saleyards, particularly cattle, remains extremely low.
The standout feature of cattle sales is the enormous amount of weight being offered, with most cattle well above 400 kilograms liveweight.
Sheep numbers in recent week have struggled to hit the big numbers of previous years.
The shortage of supplies has kept northern buyers bidding strongly and mopping up most of the heavy sheep in truck loads due to the extremely limited numbers in the north.
Further south sheep numbers have also remained low and Victorian buyers are feeling the heat from northern processors.
In the lamb markets a combination of steady rain across Victoria and southern NSW and tight supplies of lighter-weight lambs has led to improved restocker interest.
Ballarat restockers have begun to step out and make purchases in recent weeks and have kept their weight up, bumping heads with domestic processors for lambs 20-24kg.
TB White Ballarat and other lamb fattening specialists have paid from $153-$199 leaving other restockers unable to match the rates given.
Supplies of domestic and export lambs at Wagga Wagga, NSW, dipped last week which contributed to a price spike across the board of $10-$15.
Heavy old lambs topped at $263.20 while suckers 33kg carcase weight made to $230.
The exceptional run of new season domestic lambs averaged 750 cents a kilogram carcase weight.
Lamb prices continued to steam ahead in opening markets on Monday.
Export processors were the market drivers for lambs weighing above 24kg cwt.
Surprisingly the higher prices over recent weeks doesn't appear to be dragging out big numbers.
Dubbo, NSW, did increase by more than 7,000 due in part to the huge deluge of rain the week prior.
Bendigo and Corowa, NSW, had small increases but nothing to write home about.
At Bendigo lamb prices pushed above 800c/kg for the best domestic lambs selling at $163-$206 to average 745c/kg cwt.
Creating the most talk at the sale has been the surge in demand for heavy new season export lambs.
The National Livestock Reporting Service quoted $14-$28 dearer.
A run of heavy lambs made from $187-$246.
Meanwhile ewe mutton was once again the darlings of the yarding with a big price surge of $19-$34 costing processors 550-600c carcass weight.
Ballarat market has continued its strong run, with trade lambs 750c/kg cwt still the base.
- Leann Dax is an NLRS market reporter.
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