28-05-2025
Lamb price record broken three times in 24 hours as flood, drought, exports push market
An Australian lamb price record has been smashed three times in 24 hours in Victoria this week driven by drought, floods and a strong appetite for Aussie lamb overseas.
Heavy lambs hit $410 a head at Warracknabeal in the state's north-west on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day lambs topped $403 at Horsham's saleyards in western Victoria.
Warracknabeal livestock agent Aaron Zwar said the unprecedented lamb prices came after a perfect storm of rain in New South Wales, dry conditions in areas such as Victoria, and winter conditions arriving which would restrict supply.
"Ships transporting sheep from Tasmania didn't sail from Sunday to Tuesday because of rough seas leaving mainland processors short," Mr Zwar said.
The record price at Horsham was reached despite double the number of sheep and lambs being yarded from last week's sale.
National Livestock Reporting Service market reporter Graham Pymer said meat processors were buying with urgency as the sale pushed up values for lamb by about $20–40 a head.
At Ballarat on Tuesday the best pen of heavy lambs reached $400 a head, beating a previous record set in Wagga Wagga in 2021.
Market information manager at Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA), Stephen Bignell, said while lamb prices had been trending up the record prices were "pretty exceptional and amazing".
Mr Bignell said the prices reflected the difficulty in securing heavy lambs, with dry conditions in Victoria and South Australia and supply dwindling due to the coming winter.
"Historically there's supply constraints in winter and the conditions in Victoria and SA are quite poor," he said.
"That's impacting the ability to find heavy lambs for those export markets."
The unprecedented prices also come at a time of high levels of supply of lambs and sheep to the market.
Mr Bignell said about half a million animals were being processed a week.
A lot of that is going to feed the insatiable demand of overseas markets like China and the United States.
A recent MLA report said despite record production volumes in 2024, retail and saleyard prices had remained steady because most lamb was not going to the domestic market.
"Differences in carcase specifications between domestic and international markets mean that much of the additional supply is better suited to export," the MLA market report said.
Mark Templeton farms at Tahara Bridge, 10 kilometres south of Coleraine in western Victoria, which is in drought.
He tried to keep as many of his sheep as possible and said the strong prices had been a small silver lining in 18 months of tough conditions.
"Last year for us was unprecedented. We'd never had it that dry," he said.
A large part of that time was spent feeding sheep, with the cost of feeding his ewes tripling from about $20–25 per sheep to about $60 a head.
Mr Templeton said he had to make a few drastic phone calls trying to find other sources of feed such as barley straw, which was being sold at extremely high prices.
To accommodate he had to scale back on his production.
"I think that lambs are going to be a valuable commodity [with high] mutton and beef prices, and with the large slaughter [volume].
"It might take a few years to get back to where we were but high prices are certainly going to help."
South Australia and parts of Victoria have been battling drought with the federal government announcing more support today.
The Future Drought Fund Communities Program has been extended for another four years, with new funding of $36 million and an extra $800,000 for rural financial counselling services in SA and Victoria.
"This is practical, real support," Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said.
"These counsellors live in regional communities and understand the conditions and financial stressors people are experiencing."
