Market Morsel: November Lambs

Market Morsel

The respective football codes have staged their grand finals and the Melbourne cup is run, so there are no more long weekend holidays to limit saleyard volumes of lamb presented.

In Victoria the November period usually sees weekly lamb throughput lift by nearly 100% during the month from around 70,000 head per week at the start of the month to 140,000 head by month’s end.

The long weekend throughput dip is behind us now but last week yarding levels remain below the average seasonal trend by 22% at just over 60,000 head. However by mid-November weekly Victorian lamb yarding should be 100,000 head plus and this is likely to act as a reasonable headwind on prices.

The Eastern States Trade Lamb Indicator (ESTLI) is nudging the 800c/kg cwt level again but its going to find it difficult to maintain these levels as the lamb numbers surge through the middle of the spring flush.