Lamb and sheep volumes drop across eastern markets as prices slide

Lamb supply eased at Ballarat where 15,000 lambs went under the hammer in a mixed-quality yarding.

Meat & Livestock Australia's National Livestock Reporting Service said there was a good variety of heavy trade and extra heavy export lambs offered with good quality.

Most of the regular buyers, including processors, attended the sale, and despite the easy start, competition grew throughout the sale.

Light trade lambs gained $6-$8 a head compared to last week, while medium and heavy trade lambs sold $9 dearer.

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The NLRS reported heavy and extra heavy export lambs sold to a top price of $290, gaining $10 week-on-week.

Only 3400 mutton were sold at Ballarat where quality was mixed and ranged from plain to very good.

Across the board, mutton sold $10-$25 dearer, while heavy Merino wethers made from $184-$227, gaining $22.

Meanwhile, lamb supplies dipped by 50 per cent to 8500 head at Bendigo on Monday.

The sale featured a good run of heavy lambs weighing more than 30 kilograms carcase weight, however, quality and weight quickly declined after the first few pens.

The NLRS reported processor lambs weighing more than 24kg cwt were firm to $5 dearer, while plain, light lambs under 20kg cwt were $5-$20 cheaper.

Heavy export lambs received the most consistent demand and sold from $238-$285.

The better-finished, heavy crossbred lambs weighing 26-30kg sold from $214-$250.

The decline in numbers in saleyards continued north of the Murray River at Corowa, NSW, where there was a significant decline in lambs and sheep as prices eased across all categories.

The market was $10-$30 cheaper across most categories.

A key driver of the market decline was the reduced number of processors in operation, causing the market buying gallery to lack the urgency reported in previous weeks.

NLRS reported an average supply of trade lambs caused prices to ease $10-$20, while heavy trade lambs eased $17 and sold from $194-$225 to average 789 cents a kilogram cwt.

The best bang for buck was across the heavyweight lamb categories where prices only eased by $9 as lambs made $194-$225.

A small offering of mutton and a drop in quality caused mutton prices to ease $20-$30.

At Dubbo, NSW, prices and quality were also mixed and typical of a winter market.

Lightweight lambs bought by processors held their value and sold from $80-126, while secondary lightweight trade lambs were considerably cheaper, according to the NLRS, which said the category was down $8.