Lambs reached a NSW high of $400 at Forbes’ Central West Livestock Exchange at Tuesday’s sheep sale.
Forbes Livestock director and agent Randall Grayson said the industry had been anticipating good prices this winter, numerous factors driving that, but prices have risen higher more quickly than expected and especially for the quality on offer at Forbes this week.
Grayson credited vendors Dan and Mark Toynton from Molong for the high quality, well-presented pen of supplementary-fed lambs. They were second cross Poll Dorset lambs from Kraywood rams.
“They’re long-time clients and well known in the industry for their big heavy lambs over many years,” Mr Grayson said.
Toyntons sold 146 at $400 a head and those were the lead of a mob of 1200.
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An estimated carcase weight of 38kg put them at $10.50 a kilo dressed weight.
At time of preparing for press, the sale represented a record for NSW with only Victorian markets reaching the $400 mark to date and only recently.
It was a particularly thrilling day for Forbes Livestock, who registered the first lambs to reach $300 a head at the Forbes selling centre in July 2018 - just seven years ago.
Prices are being driven by a combination of factors but particularly the extended dry conditions in the typically safe livestock production regions of Victoria.
Destocking in those dry areas has led to Victorian processors coming north into our region’s markets earlier than they usually do to seek out prime lamb.
With conditions now easing here, we can expect good prices through the winter.
“We’ve still got June, July, August which are normally the squeeze months for demand so it’s going to be pretty solid for a while,” Mr Grayson said.
