QUALITY is the driving force behind market prices at the moment, Elders’ Swan Hill-based specialist Matt Rowlands says.
Mr Rowland said the recent significant rainfall event across different parts of NSW and Victoria caused an “erratic jump” in the lamb market by $15 to $20.
“That then was followed within a week by losing those gains to due to large numbers of lambs and sheep hitting the saleyards,” he said.
“Since then, the numbers have sort of filtered out a little bit and become more steady, even where there have been increased yardings.
“Wagga yarded just over 70,000 total sheep and lambs last Thursday and we still saw the lamb market hold to gain slightly, which is really positive considering how it has been tracking.”
Mr Rowland said there was a good outlook for lambs over the next two to four weeks, just before south-western Victoria would start to push a lot of numbers onto the market around the second week of November.
Crossbred new-season lambs are currently ranging between $4.80kg and $5.40kg.
“The lamb job at the moment seems to have settled and is rallying,” Mr Rowland said.
“A lot of it is driven on quality at the moment – the good-quality finish and well-covered lambs are still making the best money.”
While there hasn’t been a lot of movement in secondary lambs on the market, Matt said he was hopeful of seeing a bit of an uptake of those over the next two weeks as headers began to roll up north and paddocks began to open up.
There is not a lot of joy in the mutton market at the moment, though.
“It is still quite subdued, and if anything it’s probably slightly come back another five to ten dollars over the last week to 10 days,” Mr Rowland said.
“There’s just quite a lot of sheep hitting the market.”
Mr Rowland said processors were also doing a good job in handling the stock and moving them through the works.
“There’s not a great issue of a whole lot of stock having to sit around,” he said.
“We’re seeing a fair bit of that over in Western Australia at the moment so we are quite lucky where we are here that processors are still getting through quite a lot of numbers and they are looking to take on a second shift at their plants as we go into a bit more demand.”
The recent cattle market in Swan Hill was quite strong, with one extra buyer helping to drive up the price.
“We saw good cattle and good finish cattle sought after, making back in excess of $2kg,” Mr Rowland said.
“Once again, the quality there is what drives the price.
“However, there is quite a lot of opportunity around at the moment to be purchasing lighter-weight steers or heifers to put back out in the paddock on a six- to 12-month trade.
“Those cattle are well back under $2kg to purchase at the present time so the initial outlay for risk in purchasing those cattle is nowhere near what it has been in the last 10 to 18 months.”
Mr Rowland said opportunities in store sheep were coming forward at the moment as well as growers began to harvest their crops.
“There is going to still be access to good well-bred Merino wether lambs in the next two to four weeks,” he said.
“You’d expect purchase prices for those lambs to range between $35 and $55, which gives someone who is looking to put lambs out quite a good upside in that they will be able to shear those lambs and the wool market is still tracking along reasonably strong at the moment.
“We’re expecting to hopefully see contracts out into the end of the year to January/February in the next coming four weeks.
“Get in touch with one of our local Elders livestock experts and we can forward plan with your business as to how we can set your livestock trade up for success.”
