Horsham Stock Agents Association president Vince Muscat said the market was strong again last week.

“However there is a lack of supply at this time of the year as growers tend to shy away from sheep work and focus on harvest,” he said.

“Lambs are getting sheared now too, particularly around Horsham – if farmers aren’t harvesting, they are probably shearing.”

Mr Muscat said prices had been strong the past few months.

“Prices have been hovering around 500 cents a kilogram to 520 cents at the heavy end,” he said.

“It’s been a better season this year, so people are holding on to their lambs.

“It’s going to be reasonable harvest too but grain prices aren’t fantastic, so a lot of  people would rather feed grain to their sheep instead of selling it.” On Wednesday the best heavy lambs sold for $156.50 a head.

Mr Muscat said there were two more market days to go for the year and he didn’t expect numbers to be high.

“I would say later January to early February people will start to look at selling again,” he said.

“Usually producers like to wait about six to eight weeks after shearing, so by mid-January we should start seeing an increase.”