Meat & Livestock Australia talks sheep prices, how did we get here?

Published Jul 5, 2024

Tridge summary

The WA Livestock Research Council's Livestock Matters forum discussed the significant decrease in livestock prices in Western Australia, with market information manager Steve Bignell identifying several key factors. These include an increase in sheep numbers, record lamb slaughter numbers, capacity constraints in processing, and the impact of the El Nino weather condition. The article also highlights opportunities for the Australian red meat industry to expand in the US and north Asian markets, particularly in substituting beef with lamb and capitalizing on Australia's production of lighter lambs.
Disclaimer: The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

With roots tracing back to Kojonup, the WA Livestock Research Council's Livestock Matters forum was a homecoming for MLA market information manager Steve Bignell. Mr Bignell explained why a rapid increase in sheep numbers led to an apparent WA-specific pricing plummet, saying there was no single silver bullet driving the price. He acknowledged the past 18 months had been tough on WA's sheep industry, but how did it get there? Six main factors played a part in what is being experienced now and what was recently being experienced including: Mr Bignell said this happened in a very big way in 2023. "All of those factors came together to give us the prices that we dealt with last year," he said. "Heavy lambs fell by 37pc in October and then for mutton 75pc. "So how did we get here and what can we do moving forward?" In 2023, Australia had the highest flock in 15 years. To put this into perspective, Mr Bignell said an extra 15 million sheep entered the system in three years, which is a ...
Source: Farmweekly
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