Production down, but values still to rise
The latest ABARES outlook for livestock products has sheepmeat production dropping for the 2025–26 financial year, pushing prices higher and potentially boosting global demand even further. Changing seasonal conditions are expected to have meant lower lambing numbers leading into the year, but also more ewe retention later in the season, with flock numbers set to […]
The New Zealand wool clip
In Australia, we tend to focus on our domestic wool production and changes to it in terms of volume and quality. Across the Tasman Sea, New Zealand has traditionally been the great carpet wool producer, and they too have been experiencing major changes in wool production in recent decades, which this article takes a look […]
Weaner sales upside hanging on northern rain
We are still a month away from the annual January weaner sales, so it is a little difficult to make any bold statements about how prices might play out this year. We can, however, outline how the market is situated at the moment and what might drive rates in the new year. The annual run […]
A good WA spring driving crop production
The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) released its December Crop Report last week, and it came with some serious bumping of production figures. The headline numbers make for good reading, at least for consumers looking for some harvest pressure to come on prices. ABARES increased forecast wheat production by 5.4%, […]
Mutton market maintains momentum
Total sheep and lamb saleyard throughput fell this week, and so did most price indicators, as plenty of supply, proximity to holiday processor shutdowns, and the arrival of summer put pressure on the market. Mutton was the odd one out, with about 15,000 fewer sheep through the indicator giving it a bump upwards, and there […]
Wool prices warm as summer arrives
The market moved higher this week, with the Eastern Market Indicator gaining 17¢ to 1521¢/kg clean, while the Western Market Indicator lifted 11¢ to 1676¢. Supply eased to 35,335 bales offered and 33,532 sold, with a low 5.1% pass-in rate helping support prices. The Australian dollar hovered around US 65.8¢ during the week, and the […]
Price pressure as production picks up
A week or so ago, I wrote how ‘big crops get bigger’. True to form, the trend continues. This week, StatsCan updated their production data and revealed what the trade and the farmer all knew — the 2025 crop was a record. StatsCan reported a record canola crop of 21.8mmt, 2.56mmt more than last year’s […]
Capacity growth signals confidence in lotfeeding
A historically high cattle market has pushed cattle-on-feed numbers lower for the September quarter. Confidence in the sector has far from waned, however, with capacity, turn-off and grainfed exports all rising over the three month period. While utilisation also dipped from its record level set in the previous quarter, it remained on par with year […]
A slow harvest and drifting prices
Summer is here, yet it has been hard to find spring heat in the south, let alone summer. Cool, wet conditions continue to delay harvest on the east coast, while in the west, a dry week saw headers on a roll. The WA report is out early this week, and it shows receivals streaking ahead […]
Non-mulesed and pain relief levels by state
Given the latest round of debate about mulesing and pain relief, Mecardo has used wool sale data as a guide to the levels of non-mulesing and pain relief in the flock by state in the twelve months to November, updating a recent article published in June. The data used in this article are sourced from […]
Survey marking numbers counter high slaughter rates
The October Sheep Producer Intentions Survey (SPIS) provides some very important information regarding the number of lambs on the ground, the type of lambs, and how future supply might play out. There are some interesting figures in this year’s October survey that go against the anecdotal evidence. There is a disclaimer on the third page […]
Lighter lambs dominate supply as prices decline
Supply crept higher this week to 392k head for lamb and sheep through to the yards, and prices retracted as harvest in the south and heat in the north impact the market. New season lamb numbers are still 7% lower YoY for the spring flush, retracting again this week (Figure 2). Quality and weight of […]