THE nation’s record for the top price for lambs is back in central Victoria.
A pen of 65 white Suffolk-Dorset cross lambs sold for $435 at Bendigo on Monday, three weeks after a new state record was set at the regional selling centre.
That earlier state record of $426 was paid for a pen from a Swan Hill feedlot. It was one of five pens to smash through the $400 price and all sold by stock agents McKean McGregor.
Two of the pens were from Bridgewater district farmers. Stock agent Will Holt said Lachlan Wilson and Brent and Peter Rothacker fetched the high prices for their crossbred lambs.
In 2021, Bridgewater’s Chris Pollock set a new national record of $332 for a pen of 49 first and second cross white Suffolk lambs sold at Bendigo.
McKean McGregor’s Alex Collins said last Monday’s sale had brought good returns for Loddon farmers.
“Lambs bought in the New Year for $100 and fed were going for an average $268. So it’s good local farmers are enjoying the spoils of the strong markets and being rewarded,” Mr Collins said.
And he expects the new Australian record could hold for a while. “There are now not too many heavy lambs sitting in paddocks,” he said.