Lamb kill records broken in rebound

THERE was some great rain through the South East of the state during the week with fall of up to 100mm recorded in parts.

Because it was an Easterly pattern the were some good falls up into the central Midlands and up the East Coast with moderate rains through most other parts of the state.

It is that time of the year when all rain is good rain as most parts of Tasmania and Victoria have still no sub-soil moisture which is critical going into the spring. 

Interesting to read the latest slaughter figures throughout the country with weekly records being broken in lamb section and numbers in the cattle section rivalling the heights set during the drought of 2017-2019.

It should be noted that these figures are obtained from the National Livestock Reporting Service (NLRS) and is voluntary but it does cover about 80 per cent of all abattoirs in Australia.

Weekly NLRS lamb slaughter continued to break records throughout 2024 tipping 500,000 seven times with the most significant reported slaughter during June at 511,102 head. The average weekly kill figure remains above long term trends at 467,259 head.

The NLRS has reported over 12.6 million head which is 27 per cent above last year’s figure and 24 per cent above the five year averages for the first six months of the year.

The weekly mutton slaughter has remained high, tracking above last year in all but four weeks in the January to June period.

There were 4.7 million sheep killed which is 17 per cent up on last year and 42 per cent above the five year averages.

The cattle slaughter numbers for the six month period sit at 3.3 million head which is 21 per cent up on last year and 18 per cent above the five year average and are similar to the drought affected periods of 2017 to 2019.

The good news out of all this, is that the industry has rebounded out of that Covid-19 period when most works were lucky to be killing at half capacity.

To add to this a number of the big operators have either upgraded, bought and refurbished old plants or have built new abattoirs which has meant that this extra kill can be accomplished.

And obviously at the moment our overseas clients have a big appetite for our clean green product. Good news all round.