Lamb and mutton schedules for both islands have shown upward movement in the past few weeks and as lamb supply continues to reduce and space is filled with ewes, that is expected to continue. The mutton schedule already rests at the highest level in five years and mutters of $6.00/kg carcass weight in the North Island have been heard but are yet to come to fruition.
The flow-on price effect at the yards has been obvious, though more so in the South Island, which tends to have a stronger prime sheep market as regular buyers battle it out for limited stock.
At Canterbury Park, nearly half of the prime mixed-age ewe section sold upwards of $185 on Tuesday and levels well into the $200-$300 range were once again back on the books. Results were similar at Temuka and Coalgate. In the North Island, top ewes at Stortford Lodge did reach $181-$194 and the balance also sold on a firm market.
The downside to the strengthening prime ewe market is that given the dry conditions, farmers may opt to dig deeper into capital stock flocks, further reducing the national flock size and therefore fewer breeding ewes in the system to produce lambs.
Early scanning is also under way in the North Island and from next week scanned-in-lamb ewes will be offered at Stortford Lodge.
Outside buyers will be needed to out-bid the processors as local farmers would not have the feed to take them on, but processor buyers are working on bigger budgets that may well mean that the processor value wins at the end of the day.
A small supply of prime lambs is also selling on a strong market and Canterbury Park hit $205 for a line of 35 ewe lambs. These ewe lambs currently hold the top price spot for prime lambs in 2021, though will likely be surpassed in the near future as the market and lamb size increases.
South Island prime lambs at auction have largely been trading at $120-$180. Very few prime lambs are available in Hawke’s Bay, but there was no shortage of supply at Feilding recently and most sold for $138-$188.
