Sheep processing backlogs still affecting the industry

Charles Stewart livestock agent and auctioneer Jamie McConachy, Colac, said agents yarded about 15,000 head of cross-bred ewes at Ballarat last week.

"They opened up on some very good sheep, which made $340 a head, and then fell into a $300 bracket for quite some time," Mr McConachy said.

"When we got into the third, fourth and fifth lanes, the sheep were starting to get younger and smaller and might have ticked a few less boxes, in some cases, but hung onto $300/hd.

"That made those mid-range sheep pretty dear - we were rapt with that, in a flat environment."

Guidar vaccinated and mulesed sheep continued to sell for a premium.

"The sheep and lamb job is very flat at the moment and that has a huge bearing on the price of first-cross ewes," he said.

Ewe lambs topped at $240/hd, with most falling between $200-220/hd.

"There are a lot of restrictions in the export world, to various countries around the world, there is a shortage of containers, there is a shortage of staff - a lot of sheep are only being processed two to three times a week," he said.

"Good lambs are selling well because there are not many of them - mid-range, to the bottom range is regarded as under value, because there are so many of them about.

"Every Tom, Dick and Harry has mid-range, to low-range type-lambs, at the moment, consequently there are too many to absorb."

He said he felt the sheep job could remain tough until the end of the financial year.

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Driscoll, McIllree & Dickinson livestock agent Andrew McIllree, Nhill, said towards the end of last year, the season cut off, so a lot of lambs did not reach their potential.

"There were a lot of store lambs around, we were struggling to get a lot of weight onto lambs, so there have been a few shorn and a few have gone onto stubbles," Mr McIllree said.

"We are still harvesting here, they are only just getting into stubbles, so they are fair way off from really being finished.

"It will be a while before I reckon there will be any reasonable numbers of them."

He said it would be interesting to watch how the mutton market went.

"It got down pretty low - I don't think anyone is really sure where it's going to go," he said. "Maybe we will have a better idea after this week's sales."

In the next few weeks, most crop producers would be finished their harvest - "but that's nearly February and that's a very late harvest - no-one is really thinking about sheep, at this stage, anyway."

AWN Edenhope manager David Hanel said he hoped it would not be as wet, this year, as it was last year.

"A positive would be to see our supply chain free up and see all our processors get to full capacity, to get rid of a bit of backlog" Mr Hanel said.

"Obviously there have been a fair few lambs put back into the paddock, we would like to have space for them, through the autumn and winter, to give store buyers the confidence to put lambs out now.

"The mutton job may be starting to find its feet now, after being in a lull for a fair few months."

That would affect first-cross ewe prices, in the spring.

"Obviously the more producers get for their lamb and mutton, the higher the price of the 1.5 year old ewes and ewe lambs as well," he said.

He said a larger than expected yarding at Hamilton, last week, was probably due to the carryover from the late season.

"A lot of the lambs are not suitable for processing anyway, so they are put back in the paddock, which puts downward pressure on the store lamb price."

He said there were also positive signs from the Chinese market.