Market Morsel
Victorian saleyard lamb yarding ranges have struggled all season to match the five-year pattern, operating under the conventional seasonal sample for a lot of Spring. It has been a peculiar and uncharacteristic Spring in Victoria, persistent chilly and moist climate with producers reporting delays in lamb weight beneficial properties.
In comparison with this time final season there have been round 500,000 fewer lambs offered at Victorian saleyards over the 12 months. Certainly, it has been the bottom lamb yarding since 2016.
Into the previous few weeks of December, each in 2021 and 2016 we noticed a surge in lamb throughput in Victoria with saleyard numbers swelling towards 180,000 head earlier than the market closed for the Xmas/New Yr break. Final week Victorian lamb yardings eased to underneath 100,000 head in a really uncharacteristic pattern.
We might even see yet another burst of Victorian lambs earlier than the season closes however annual yarding volumes will unlikely come anyplace close to ranges seen over the previous 5 years. This might imply some robust volumes as soon as saleyards open once more into 2023 maintaining lamb costs subdued early into the brand new 12 months. It could make for some low-cost lamb chops for the Australia Day BBQ.