Positive mood at Tassie saleyards

MORE rain and more chilly weather is pretty typical of a Tasmanian early spring.

The talk around the saleyards revolves around good rains but would love some warmer weather but in general the mood is positive with cattle prices improving and although lamb and mutton prices have eased they are still in the ok range. 

Interstate lamb markets are now mainly dominated by new seasons lambs with the big numbers being at Wagga, Forbes and Dubbo in NSW where they yard between 35,000 and 45,000 each week at the moment.

The biggest Victorian market is Bendigo where on Monday there were 14,450 yarded of which there were 10,000 new seasons. 

The Western Victorian yards are still on small numbers at the moment with the big numbers not expected until well into October and that will depend a bit on their season which is desperate need of a rain. 

Lamb prices have edged back over the last couple of weeks and this week we have seen good quality new seasons lambs quoted between 790c and 840c/kg carcass weight and at Forbes trade and heavy pens made $170 to $225 (to a top of $233) while restockers paid $82 to $156 for lambs to go back to the paddock or into feedlots. 

Over at Dubbo on Monday they quoted most at 790c to 830c/kg for good quality while stores made $118 to $130/head and at the same saleyard old lambs are being quoted at similar prices to new lambs except light trade which were more in the 740c to 760c/kg range.

Interesting to note that at Bendigo on Monday store lambs were quoted in the $38 to $190 range, obviously a big gap with the tops being bought by Ballarat feeders and the bottoms very small immature lambs. 

At this market there was a shortage of good quality heavy lambs and they made $226 to $255 or 860c/kg which I think would be a very good result for lambs straight off their mothers.

I understand it takes a good lamb to make this sort of money but most killable lambs are selling for $170 to $220/ head and while we have strong restocker competition things look positive in the short to medium term. 

The mutton market has taken a fair hit over the last month or so with many sheep $20 to $40 cheaper over that period and we saw that at Powranna on Tuesday with most heavy sheep making $68 to $90/head with medium weights $50 to $70/head. 

Although it is much cheaper, it is not the disaster show of this time last year when most sheep were quoted at 65c/kg. 

Most interstate mutton prices are being quoted between 250c and 300c/kg although there are big difference from saleyard to saleyard with most mutton at Forbes quoted between 310c and 360c/kg while at Dubbo (not that far away) most were quoted under 300c/kg carcass weight. 

Locally we are seeing small numbers of mutton in our saleyards but as shearing and weaning take place I would think we will see numbers pick up.