SHEEP producers will swing more of their farming enterprises towards prime lamb production this year.
The latest prime lamb survey conducted by Meat and Livestock Australia shows producers intend to turn off 7 per cent more lambs than they did last year.
That's 5 per cent more than MLA was predicting just a couple of months ago.
And the results come in spite of the fact that the nation's flock is at its lowest level for more than 100 years. As data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows, sheep and lamb numbers have continued to fall.
The ABS estimates the national flock is down to 72.7 million, the smallest since 1905.
Despite this, producers intend to turn off more prime lambs this year to capitalise on record returns for sheepmeat.
Improved seasonal conditions have also been a major influence on the popularity of running sheep, with 47 per cent of farmers surveyed indicating they had maintained their flock size since July last year.
The survey also found producers intended to join 5 per cent more ewes than they did a year ago, largely boosted by increased joinings to dual purpose and wool-shedding breeds such as Dorpers.
MLA sheepmeat analyst Kara Tighe said there were no real surprises in the results, which were gleaned from the responses of more than 1000 producers.
"There has been little change between the breed makeup, and we expected that joinings would be up thanks to the better season in much of the country," she said.
National results from the survey showed producers were going to join slightly fewer ewes to Merino rams this year, and more to maternal breeds.
Victoria followed this trend, with 30 per cent of ewes joined to Merinos this year, compared to 31 per cent last year.
Part of the move away from Merinos was toward maternal breeds as producers try to build up their prime-lamb dam numbers.
This was reflected, too, in the breed breakdown for lamb turnoff for the coming year, with more first-cross lambs expected to be finished for the industry.
Ms Tighe said the tight lamb supply in Victoria was further proof that producers were trying to build up their numbers of breeding ewes.
"We believe the survey has showed that Victorian producers are retaining their first-cross ewe lambs for breeding purposes," she said.
The better season is one of the reasons for more optimism in lamb turnoff, with better joinings and better lambing percentages both contributing to producers belief they will have more to sell, Ms Tighe said.
The survey also showed the breeding ewe flock remains relatively young, with 85 per cent of survey respondents saying their ewes were aged three to four years.
Merino ewes make up the majority of the breeding flock at 69 per cent.
