Good falls of rain, along with the onset of cooler temperatures has had some impact on lamb yardings, despite the return to a full week of trading, according to Meat and Livestock Australia.
In NSW, falls of between 10 and 25mm were received across many areas, whereas the north coast received up to 50mm.
MLA says this impacted particularly on the Central Tablelands Livestock Exchange and Forbes, where yardings were reduced by 22pc and 25pc respectively.
On the other hand, Wagga yarded 23pc more than last week as producers have had little option but to offload, with rain coming too late to impact pasture growth.
Gippsland in Victoria received the majority of the State's rain of between 10 and 25mm.
Bendigo's yardings reduced by 28pc, and Ballarat yarded 8pc less.
Western Victoria received around 10mm, which had no impact in Hamilton, with numbers climbing 54pc higher as last week's yarding was affected by a public holiday.
In SA, the south eastern corners received anywhere from 10 to 50mm. This had an impact at Naracoorte where yardings were down 26pc.
Yardings in Mount Gambier more than trebled compared with last week, also due to the public holiday.
Some of the northern parts of SA received between 1mm and 10mm, however, this had minimal impact, with the SA Livestock Exchange reporting similar yardings to last week.
Some of the central and southern agricultural regions of WA received good falls of between 25 and 50mm.
However, the majority of the south western half of the State received between 1mm and 10mm.
This had no impact on lamb yardings, with Katanning lifting 33%, while Midland was up 17% on last week.
Overall national sheep yardings reduced 2pc at MLA's reported saleyards to total 85,137 head.
There was very mixed demand for sheep, and prices generally finished slightly dearer.
Some markets reported a dearer value for sheep carrying valuable long fleece.
Others reported a dearer trend for lighter weight ewes, while the medium and heavy weight ewes displayed a slightly cheaper trend.
The eastern states mutton indicator gained 5¢/kg to stand at 199¢/kg (carcase weight).
The WA mutton indicator lifted 11¢/kg to stand at 135¢/kg cwt.
Meanwhile, trade and heavy lambs received good price gains, with the national indicators averaging 363¢/kg and 349¢/kg, up 7¢ and 16¢, respectively.
The mixed quality offering resulted in stronger demand for prime lambs.
For this time of year, there were relatively large numbers of good quality lambs, although there were also reports of increased offerings of plainer conditioned lambs lacking finish due to the colder temperatures.
SOURCE: Meat and Livestock Australia
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