Feilding Stock Sale: Ewe prices ease as numbers down

A ewe and her lambs.

Yesterday's Feilding Prime Stock Sale was another Monday sale dominated by the sheep yarding, albeit a much reduced yarding on last week.

Ewe numbers dropped by over 3000 head even though many hill country blocks are flat out weaning, and lamb numbers were around two-thirds of last week's.

The sheep sale took as long to complete because there were as many pens of ewes but just in smaller lines.

There was no great discernible movement in spring lamb sale prices.

Struan Land Company took line honours with 25 lambs selling for $167 and 354 lambs in total sold for over $150.

Again, the yarding was divided between the two main lamb market operators, which is a potential weakness in this sale but has been working well so far.

Store lambs trended down with some perhaps heading to the meat plants at lighter weights and some lambs were obviously over meat company schedule weight limits but sold here for no discount. Go figure.

As mentioned, ewe entries dropped right away but still numbered well over 5000.

The proportion of good and heavy ewes reduced significantly at this sale and average prices followed suit. Overall, the market declined again but not to the extent of last week and sale prices eased by about $5/head in very round figures.

Two very heavy blackface ewes, not in the summary below, sold for $200.50 after two bidders had a crack at each other.

Hoggets were few and far between with only a couple of bidders and there was little change in the two-tooth and adult male sheep market.

Once again, there is very little to say about the cattle sale. Of interest were three Friesian bulls that could probably be farmed on and sold for expected store money at $1782 ($2.70).

One big Charolais cow sold for $1668 ($2.35) as the cows firmed on what was not a large yarding. The beef cows found interest from buyers. Only two heifers came forward, both Hereford/Friesian and, with a little backlog in the local trade situation at present, these were no more than steady.

Sheep (7165): lambs (1,562); prime (1312), 35-52kg, $117-$167, $3.20-$3.50, steady; store (250), 18-33kg, $50-$102, $2.80-$3.30, slight ease; hoggets (117), $65-$121; ewes (5352); good, heavy (1426), 26-30kg, $120-$148, $4.40-$4.90, ease; medium (2466), 21-25kg, $88-$123, $4.20-$4.90, ease; lighter (1316), 16-20kg, $56-$86, $3.50-$4.50, ease; 2ths (144), $67-$115; male sheep (134), $42-$145.

Cattle (74): heifers (2), 530-590kg, $1452-$1628, $2.74-$2.76; cows (59); good, heavy, 510-710kg, $1254-$1668, $2.03-$2.50, firm; boners, 355-580kg, $582-$1206, $1.56-$2.36, firm; bulls (13), 243-660kg, $498-$1782, $2.05-$2.70.