FLOCK rebuilding in 2011 would be the strongest in Queensland and Tasmania, but weakest in South Australia and Western Australia, Meat and Livestock Australia’s latest lamb survey has indicated.
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Nationally, 47 per cent of survey respondents indicated they planned to increase their breeding ewe flock size in 2011. The trend was strongest in Queensland (76pc), followed by Tasmania, (55pc), Victoria and New South Wales (54pc) and weakest in Western Australia (34pc) and South Australia (30pc).
However more producers indicated they were going to maintain their flock size in South Australia, (63pc) and Western Australia (57pc), compared with farmers in Victoria (39pc), Tasmania (38pc), New South Wales (35pc) and Queensland (20pc).
MLA’s lamb and sheepmeat research and development manager Dr Alex Ball said the lamb survey results reaffirmed what many agents and processors were starting to see on the ground on the back of this year’s improved seasonal conditions and higher net returns.
“Producers are making attempts to rebuild their flocks and shift into prime lamb production thanks to improved pasture conditions and positive price signals.”
Nationally, 46pc of respondents intended to increase their slaughter lamb turnoff in 2011, with the trend strongest in Queensland (76pc), followed by Victoria (53pc), Tasmania (52pc), New South Wales (46pc), South Australia (38pc) and Western Australia (35pc).
Between July and October 2010, 2.3 million pure Merino lambs and 6.5 million non-pure Merino lambs were expected to be sold nationally.
The lamb survey indicated a national average marking rate of 93pc for the period of the survey.
“The high marking rate and the shift within the flock into prime lamb production will help Australia meet the strong domestic and global demand for Australian lamb over the short to medium term.”
The long-term national marking percentage is around 82pc to 83pc.
However Dr Ball said the survey’s increased marking percentage might have reflected the autumn/early winter lambing results for mainly prime lamb producers.
He believed the October survey’s inclusion of winter/spring lambing figures would give the “ground truth” on marking percentages across prime lamb, maternal and fine Merino flocks.
Nationally, 69pc of producers indicated their net returns in 2009-10 had increased on the previous year. This was greatest in Tasmania (86pc) and weakest in New South Wales (65pc).
Nationally, 66 of producers reported seasonal conditions as ‘better’ than a year earlier. The response was most pronounced in Victoria (88pc), Queensland (79pc) and New South Wales (76pc), compared to in Tasmania (51pc), Western Australia (40pc) and South Australia (38pc).
About 2300 lamb producers across Australia participated in the recent June survey, which used a different methodology to previous MLA lamb surveys; hence comparisons with previous surveys were not possible.
The key findings of the June MLA lamb survey can be downloaded from the MLA website: www.mla.com.au/lambsurvey.
