Suckers flow to SA Livestock Exchange

But Elders Dublin/Yorke Peninsula livestock manager Matt Ward said there were only limited numbers so far, and it was likely to be a few more weeks before significant supplies hit the market.

“In the July sales there have only been about 700 to 800 new season lambs yarded each week, and they have only been store lambs,” he said.

“There’s no trade lambs suitable for the meat companies to speak about. The sucker lambs that were yarded went to graziers at $96-$105. The better lambs to kill aren’t likely to be available until early to mid August.”

Mr Ward said numbers were quite low at Dublin at the moment, as was traditional for this time of year.

“We’ve been yarding between 6000 and 7000 lambs in the past three weeks,” he said.

“The quality has dropped off, as we’re getting the end of the 2016-drop lambs coming through. We’ve had quite a few secondary Merino lambs coming in, and crossbred lamb numbers are pretty light on.”

Mr Ward said in the past few weeks, heavy crossbred lambs were generally making $165-$180.

“It works out to about $5.80 a kilogram to $6.20/kg,” he said. “It’s not as high as the month before, but it’s still good money.”