After an extended Christmas and New Year break, selling restarted at Deniliquin on Tuesday with 4600 lambs and 2500 sheep penned.
The lamb run had a reasonable lead of heavy types before quality became more varied on the trade and lighter pens.
The core group of buyers operated and prices matched recent results, with the best slaughter lambs from 700c to 740c/kg liveweight.
Mixed trades, most of the Dorpers and smaller pen lots were in the ballpark of 650c to 700c/kg.
A few heavy lambs over 30kg carcase weight reached a top of $235.
The lead run of crossbred lambs in the 26-30kg range sold from $175 to $222 to average an estimated 700c/kg.
The general run of crossbred trade lambs were mostly $135 to $165/head, and the medium and lighter trades generally tracked under 700c/kg carcase weight.
The few pens of better MK style lambs from $80 to $116.
The plainest little lambs were down to $26.
The yarding had a reasonable number of hoggets and there was some much dearer sales than pre-Christmas at $140 to $164 for the top lots.
Likewise, demand for mutton was strong and prices for the main lines with weight were at an estimated 260c to 300c/kg carcase weight, while some of the light sheep reached close to 350c/kg.
In dollars per head, most sheep sold from $60 to $90 with just a few pens over $100 to a top of $108.
The only category that remained flat was heavy rams, at less than $10 for most.
Top sales:
~ details contributed by Meat Livestock Australia market reporter Jenny Kelly and Deniliquin Saleyards manager Greg White, on behalf of the Deniliquin Associated Agents.