Monday, June 16 saw five pens above $400/head in the strongest lamb market this selling centre has recorded.
“We’ve seen momentum build over the last four to six weeks, and we’ve reached unprecedented levels at the minute,” McGregor Bendigo livestock agent Alex Collins said.
“We had lambs make up to $426 at Bendigo, which is a Victorian record, and it was just behind the national record set at Griffith last week of $431.
“It’s really exciting times for lamb producers.”
Mr Collins said the price was high due to a long series of events.
“It’s been a perfect storm of events happening over the course of the last two to three years,” he said.
“You had drought and low prices for sheep and lambs, which has knocked quite a few of the numbers out of the system, and then we had the air freight market come back online, which has taken a lot of the light lambs out of the equation.
“Numbers of really good quality heavy lambs have been dissipating for a while, and that sort of caused this culmination of the market being as strong as it is.”
He is confident in the strong market continuing through winter as there’s a lot of new lambs around.
“I can see us selling new season’s lambs at record levels for sure,” Mr Collins said.
Deniliquin was another very strong market, on June 17 posting the best carcase price rates for lamb it has seen, as it matched the dearer money achieved across the industry in the past week.
There was also a new price high of $311/head for this selling centre.
“It’s been predicted that we would get to these levels,” Jason Andrews, from Elders Denilquin, said.
“There’s drought conditions in a lot of areas down south in Victoria and South Australia, which has seen a huge sell-off of stock, and there was always going to be a bit of a shortage this time of year.
“Realistically, it’s probably that, and being wet in the north as well as floods, and not being able to get stock out and then wanting to restock contributed.”
Meat & Livestock Australia senior market information Erin Lukey said the current market drastically contrasted the low prices seen in late 2023.
“Recent price increases in northern Victoria and southern NSW are driven by reduced lamb yardings and a drop in slaughter volumes nationally,” Ms Lukey said.
“This tightening in supply has supported stronger prices in these regions, with processors actively sourcing available stock.
“While current conditions suggest prices may hold in the short term, future movements will depend on seasonal factors, feed availability, and export demand.
“The market has shown sustained resilience, with prices now significantly above the lows recorded in September 2023.”
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