Bendigo Livestock Exchange will yard 37,000 sheep and lambs in Monday’s sale, a record number for the time of year.
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Drought conditions in south eastern NSW have caused the influx, with Elders selling 12,500 of the lambs from the Riverina farmers.
Elders livestock manager Nigel Starick believes the number is a record for August. He hasn’t seen numbers like this since the 2001 and 2002 droughts.
Read more: Federal government announces drought support
Farmers have put the lambs up for sale six to eight weeks earlier than normal because of the dry conditions in NSW, he said.
Dry conditions mean feed is scarce, so farmers are unable to fatten the animals to sell as prime lambs.
The lambs make up the pool of animals to 37,000 across six agents. A total of 27,000 lambs and 10,000 sheep will be for sale.
“They’re just here because the season’s cut out of them, so they’ve got minimal feed and water on them,” Mr Starick said.
“They need to get rid of these lambs as quickly as they can while they’re still healthy and fit to be traveled.”
Over 99 percent of NSW is currently affected by drought conditions.
Areas of ‘intense drought’ cover 23.6 percent of the state, according to the latest statistics from the NSW Department of Primary Industries. Another 35.4 percent is in ‘drought’, and 40.9 percent is ‘drought affected’.
The North West, the Hunter, Greater Sydney, Central Tablelands, Greater Sydney and South East are among the worst affected.
However, 37.8 percent of the Riverina is currently in drought, and another 62.1 percent is drought affected.
Livestock operations manager Ron Rutledge has been glad to see concern for those suffering from drought in northern NSW, but feels the southern areas have been forgotten.
“Conditions have deteriorated excessively in the last six weeks,” he said.
“Some of those locations in southern NSW have had between 20 and 40 mils for the years so it’s… a very dire situation.”
Farmers have come to Bendigo to sell their sheep and lambs because of its strategic location, close to producers in the south, Mr Starick said.
He sees the sale as a valuable opportunity for local farmers with feed and water to put lambs out to pasture, and make some money from them.
They may be benefiting from the woes of their northern cousins, but Mr Starick says local farmers need to seize the moment while they can.
“They don’t want to take advantage of someone's bad times, but they still see it’s an opportunity,” Starick said.
“At the end of the day it’s an opportunity to move forward… and you’ve got to grab those opportunities where you can.”