AN OUTSTANDING season across Victoria is giving lamb producers a brilliant start to the spring selling season – something they haven’t had for many years.
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Prices are very strong across the state and in southern NSW, reaching a top of $200 for heavy export lambs at Wagga Wagga, NSW, last week.
And it’s not just due to recent rain – the season has been steadily improving with a mild winter, few frosts and decent rainfall. In some areas the season is two weeks ahead and it appears spring has arrived early.
“We are getting very strong prices,” Landmark Shepparton’s Max Ritchie said.
“This situation is largely due to a winter supply shortage after years of drought though.”
New lambs have filtered through the Shepparton much earlier than normal, which Mr Ritchie said was largely due to the Murray Irrigation area receiving a late, but welcome allocation of water in autumn that assisted many winter crops.
“This is the first time in five years farmers have been able to lamb ewes down on irrigated crops, it’s made a big difference,” he said.
And with wheat and barley prices skyrocketing, he did not expect high grain prices to impact on the lamb market.
“I would say most people have enough grass in the paddocks to get the job done without feeding out.”
For Numurkah producer Peter Mapletoft, good seasonal conditions combined with the late irrigation boost to return a notable $142 for his first crop of sucker lambs at Shepparton.
“The price is certainly better then other years,” Mr Mapletoft said.
“Competition has been terrific on the trade weight lambs.”
His lambs were run on clover-based pastures and like many others, sold a fortnight earlier than usual.
With a limited amount of hay on hand due to a run of dry seasons, Mr Mapletoft decided to join his ewes early to ensure there was still feed around when the lambs arrived, but he was still able to take advantage of the irrigation water.
Although 90 per cent of Mr Mapletoft’s lambs are sold as suckers, he said the spike in grain prices could see some lambs entering the marketplace early.
“It will be interesting to see whether feeding out to lambs is still a viable option,” he said.
