Could the return of live export help turn the tide on negative sentiment in WA's sheep industry?
With the northern hemisphere moratorium lifted today, Friday, September 15, a positive and optimistic Elders State livestock and wool manager Dean Hubbard believes so.
"I think sentiment could turn fairly quickly with the ramping up of live export demand," Mr Hubbard said.
"At current prices the trade is attractive for not only live exporters, but also our opportunistic client traders improving appetite to return to the market given the current sheep prices being experienced.
Despite some concern surrounding the carryover of sheep on farm, Mr Hubbard was convinced numbers weren't as high as some people might think.
In fact, he said WA's sheep flock had been in a slight sell-down and reduction over the past 18 months.
"I think we have been in decline for some time and that things can turn," Mr Hubbard said.
"When I look at Elders and east-west sale figures, the majority of the sales being conducted have lacked paddock-to-paddock sales.
"So a lot of the numbers we are showing as sales are actually terminal and the percentage of terminal sales are far greater at the moment than they have been for the past two or three years."
Mr Hubbard said there was normally a large number of turnover stock that people buy and sell, however, the appetite to do so had fallen away dramatically, with the current retreat in sheep prices.
As such, he said the carryover wasn't all about turnoff, but more so a lack of demand.
Taking a look at processing, Mr Hubbard said numbers in WA were up significantly on last year and this was also the case over east.
"We have been processing more sheep and it is the grown sheep numbers that are up, not the lamb numbers," he said.
"While the annual selling pattern hasn't changed because of the delay in processing, processing numbers are actually up."
