Lamb supplies to remain price-depressant in Australia

Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) and Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) released their February producer intentions survey (PULSE) results a fortnight ago. The headline from the PULSE report was that a lot of lambs had been carried over from the spring, to be sold in summer or autumn.MLA’s weekly slaughter data tells us that during the spring lamb slaughter on the east coast was 11.6% stronger than last year in the spring. If fewer lambs were sold than expected, there is either a huge increase in lamb supply coming this year or the lambs which weren’t sold were store lambs, not slaughter lambs. It is likely a combination of these factors, but the strong slaughter suggests growers who usually sell lambs at store held more back as they didn’t like the price. Anecdotal evidence backs this up to an extent.If we go back to MLA’s February projections, we find that lamb slaughter for 2023 is only expected to be 3% higher than in 2022. For the year to date, we have seen 7% more lambs ...