Sheep Industry News May 2023

highs tend to be because of reduced lamb production during the summer months. That pattern should hold as production declines into the summer. But growing stocks suggest more total supplies on the market to pressure prices. In the San Angelo, Texas, market, lighter weight slaughter lamb categories – generally 10-pound increments from 40 to 90 pounds – prices tended to peak in late February or early March for each weight. For example, 50 to 60 pound slaughter lambs got to $305 per cwt. in the first week of March before declining the rest of the month. Prices for lambs destined for feed lots continue to struggle even with lower feed prices compared to a year ago. In general, wholesale lamb cut prices have tended to be flat or declining during the last several weeks. Single leg prices fell

to $3.85 per pound the week before Easter, for their lowest weekly average price of the year so far. Lamb racks were $11.33 per pound for the same week, not a lot different from their weekly prices in the last two months. On the retail price side, the limited available data suggests that there were more stores with lamb features for the week of April 7 through April 13. Of the 29,200 stores surveyed by the U.S. Depart ment of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service, 20.3 percent of them had some kind of lamb featured – compared to 17.9 per cent of stores a year ago. Prices were lower than those of a year ago across all cuts mentioned. More featuring and lower prices might AMERICAN POLYPAY SHEEP ASSOCIATION Maternal Power Plus...

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