The National Livestock Reporting Service noted that good lines of heavy mutton cost processors between 460¢ and 550¢/kg.
Any big crossbred ewes were well supported by exporters at $160 to a top of $222/head to trend over 500¢/kg cwt. A pen of extra heavy, bare shorn Merino ewes estimated around 38-40kg cwt topped at $225/head.
Price outcomes for lambs were more mixed and the market very much played out around quality; hard grain-fed lambs selling better than the washy grassy types.
Bendigo Elders livestock manager Nigel Starick said the Bendigo pen was a one-off, but he noted there was rising demand for mutton, as evidenced by the sale at Wagga on April 3.
Heavy sheep sold up to $100 dearer from $175 to 294/head. Heavy wethers sold at $260 to $286 to average 802¢/kg cwt.
“I think the job will remain strong this coming week,” Mr Starick said last Friday.
He suggested the stronger performance of aged sheep might be connected with the global uncertainty created by US President Donald Trump.
“Mutton has a wider spread for points of delivery.
“The lamb job remains strong but mutton is going extremely strong at the moment.”
At Shepparton on April 4, ewes and wethers sold to $238.
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