Deniliquin Sheep Report

Lamb numbers continued to roll-in, influenced by the strong spring market with nearly 9000 lambs and mutton yarded. Quality was not as impressive or as even as the previous two markets, with more of the young lambs showing signs of having dried off. There was also evidence of seed in skins. The buying group was missing some of the supermarket and domestic orders which had been active during the main flush of young lambs from the region, these buyers now reverting back to southern markets in Victoria. Agents said the market wasn’t as strong as a fortnight ago, but price corrections were modest and linked into quality. Feeders and store buyers were active on the plainer trades and lighter lambs. The mutton market also gave back some value compared to the very strong rates of the previous sale.

Agents said buyers were selective over the young lamb run, favouring the fresher skinned and hard finished lambs. There was less weight in the yarding overall. One pen of heavy lambs reached $330/head with the majority of the lead pens in the trade to heavy trade categories at $270 to $310/head. Below this was the light to medium trade lambs at $220 to $265/head. Agents estimated most of the better processing lambs from 1100c to 1160c/kg in a softer result.

The sheep sale was described as solid but without buyers chasing each other out, and the quote was similar to around $10/head cheaper. Some extra heavy ewes still managed to make from $300 to $314/head but in limited numbers. The general run of ewes $220 to $280/head.

Report compiled remotely by Jenny Kelly.