Sheep Industry News May 2023

Market Report

DAVID ANDERSON, PH.D. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service

Live Lamb Prices Continue Climb Up to Easter

E aster and our other spring holiday demand boosts are now behind today’s market as we get to late spring and early summer. We’re likely to see some seasonal changes in supplies and demand going forward. LAMB SUPPLIES One of the headwinds facing lamb prices so far in 2023 is that both lamb and yearling slaughter and lamb production have been greater than in 2022. Lamb and yearling slaughter from the first of the year through the week ending March 25 was 10.1 percent greater than the year before. Mature sheep slaughter was up 6.5 percent. With dressed weights down from a year ago by about 2 pounds per head, lamb production has increased 6.2 percent in 2023 compared to 2022. To be fair, production in 2023 and 2022 were below lamb production in the same period in 2021. Normally, lamb slaughter would begin to decline from this time of year well into summer. Things appear to be moving in that direction already with production down 14.5 percent from a year ago during the last two weeks (early April). There might be some holiday impacts in that data but, regardless, that is a sharp decline in production.

LAMB IMPORTS Less lamb has been imported through the first two months of 2023 than last year, 34.1 million pounds compared to 37.4 million pounds in 2022. About 6 percent less lamb was imported from Australia while imports from New Zealand were down about 17 percent. Those two countries have supplied 98 percent of United States lamb imports so far this year. A small but inter esting trend in lamb imports is that a little bit more lamb is being imported from countries other than Australia and New Zealand. In 2022, about 5.2 million pounds of lamb – 1.9 percent of total imports – came from other countries. COLD STORAGE Lamb and mutton in cold storage grew by 3.2 million pounds from January to 28.6 million pounds in February. Storage represented a 29 percent increase from February 2022. The year-to-date lamb production increase was offset by the de cline in imports – although the change in imports only reflects January-February due to the lag in data – yet cold storage stocks increased. That might be a concerning number for demand in the quarter but, the storage number is as of Feb. 1 and so it lags pro

duction data. Lamb and mutton in storage is increasing and approaching the five-year average, which covers a period where stocks were extremely burdensome on the market. LAMB PRICES Lamb prices have shown some life, especially in the last six weeks. Heavy wool slaughter lambs at Sioux Falls, S.D., reached $181 per cwt. in the first week of April, their highest in almost a year. That price was higher than the five-year average, but still well below last year’s $214 per cwt. Normally, heavier weight slaughter lambs would see a price decline in the weeks after Easter before climb ing to seasonal highs for the year by mid-summer. Those seasonal price

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