Feilding Prime Sale

There was a record yarding of prime lamb sold in Feilding yesterday.

Any thoughts over past weeks of being past peak prime lamb sale yardings were utterly dashed with what surely must be a record yarding for this sale of 11,739 lambs at the Feilding Prime Stock Sale yesterday.

Almost every vendor must have waited for the first full week, after three short weeks with public holiday breaks, to consign lambs to the sale and this is not surprising after the past few weeks of good sale prices.

The sighs of relief from the selling agents were very audible after the sale was completed as, while prices certainly eased from last week, sale prices did not crash in the face of such numbers.

A conservative estimate put the number of store lambs at 1365 and yesterday was not the day to sell them as - and this has been obvious in recent weeks - store lambs have looked expensive compared with prime lambs.

The dollars/head sale prices eased back by over $5/head and, on a carcase weight basis, prices were around 20 cents/kg less.

There were some very good prices mixed up over the sale with 17-21 kg lambs generally selling well but there were some periods of weakness where there were few bidders operating, having filled their trucks, and prices slumped to the extent there were actually some passings, unknown of late.

Top price was $145 for 30 male lambs from Craig England and there were only 412 lambs sold for over $140/head this week.

All those store lambs eased as well but this is not the sale for them.

Ewe numbers also lifted above last week but only to normal levels. There was a greater proportion of grazing ewes this week which surprises with all the feed around. One line of 266 scanned empty two-tooths were sold for $97 and, while the better ewes were steady enough, the medium and lesser ewes may have been a touch softer than last week's hot ewe sale.

The biggest entry of cull cows so far was put up in the cattle yards with 429 cows offered, including more beef cows. Two buyers were quite active, both apparently buying for the paddock, so the usual main weekly buyer did not secure his usual quota. The better cows were reasonably firm and the boners, as a generalisation, seemed to sell for roughly the same cents/kg regardless of condition in many cases.

The heifers sold to a firm inquiry, 2 Hereford/Friesian heifers sold for $1736 ($2.65) with Devon and Angus/Hereford cross heifers selling to $2.70/kg.
The bull yarding was mostly Jersey and Jersey cross.

Sheep (13,829): lambs (11,739); prime (10,374), 39-60 kg, $105-$145, $2.40-$2.70, ease; store (1365), 26-41 kg, $55-$113, $2.10-$2.90, ease; ewes (1754); good, heavy, 26-30 kg, $101-$121, $3.90-$4.05, steady; medium, 21-25 kg, $78-$100, $3.75-$4, slight ease; lighter, 16-20 kg, $61-$76, $3.75-$3.85, ease; lesser types, $31-$51; 2ths (279), $41-$111; male sheep (57), $20-$91.

Cattle (492): steers (2), 400-670 kg, $960-$1829, $2.40-$2.73; heifers (52); 460-655 kg, $1315-$1736, $2.60-$2.72, firm; lesser sorts, 297-460 kg, $677-$1095, $2-$2.38; cows (429); good, heavy, 495-655 kg, $1000-$1212, $1.79-$2.08, firm; boners, 335-600 kg, $517-$1114, $1.54-$2.08, steady; bulls (9), 286-550 kg, $435-$1485, $1.50-$2.70, ease.

Feilding Calf Sale

Around 90 calves sold on a slightly easing market with beef cross bulls remaining strong. Heifer calves are now finding a new level, albeit also still firm.
Bulls: Friesian; good, $255-$305; medium, $175-$210; H/Fr X; good, $350-$400; medium and coloured, $250-$300; Simmental X; top, $470.
Heifers: H/Fr X; good, $230-$270; medium, $150-$200.