More buyers gathered at the Feilding stock sale after weather cleared.
After last week's decimated storm sale, there was a larger group of buyers gathered and a noticeable lift in buying interest was obvious for the nearly 10,000 lambs offered which lifted all lamb sale prices.
Unfortunately for the vendors of quite a few scanned in lamb ewes, this enthusiasm was not expressed in bidding for these ewes and really only the younger or better scanned ewes garnered much interest. 97 two-tooth ewes, scanned with twins, from Simon Wishnowsky sold for $182 but a few other pens were passed in, bearing in mind that the quality was not always of the highest order.
The better male lambs started with some competitive bidding and these better male lambs lifted by around 10 cents/kg above the most recent levels which took them back to where they were before the stormy weather.
As the lamb sale moved into each lower weight range the cents/kg seemed to lift by another 10 cents/kg and the lighter and medium lambs lifted the most on the day.
150 woolly cryptorchids from Hildon Farm, Sandon Road, sold for $142.50 to be easily the day's top price but these lambs could have been sold at a Monday prime sale too as they carried some weight. 123 forward blackface ewe lambs from J & P Blaikie, Rewa, sold for $135 but these were also very forward lambs.
The woolly lambs were a little damp but this did not seem to concern the buyers and some of the woolly lamb pens seemed to be the "best sold". Hawke's Bay and Wairarapa buyers were the most active buyers, especially for the medium lambs.
Cattle entries climbed well over 1,000 head again which brought in more buyers and the well established trend of strong interest in the better bred traditional steers and heifers as well as the better Friesian bulls was again obvious and sale prices lifted again for those cattle, especially for rising two year old cattle.
18 good rising three year Angus steers from Belmont Station sold for $1850 ($3.06) in a smallish section. 21 rising two-year Angus and Angus/Hereford cross steers from Dochroyle Ltd, Taihape, sold for $1672 ($3.27) and other good Angus steers sold around $3.50/kg, much to their vendors' delight. Continuing the firming trend in another smallish section, traditional rising yearling steers sold up to $1135 ($4.05).
More bulls arrived which in turn attracted more bull buyers. The better rising two-year Friesian bulls from the entries of IR Blunden, Halcombe, and Hills AG Spraying, Colyton, sold up to $3.15/kg. Andrew Dalley, Bunnythorpe, sold 18 rising yearling Friesian bulls for $1190 ($3.23) as the bull sections lifted.
Perhaps a sale highlight was a quality offering of good, traditional rising two year heifers. Richwyn Farm, Rangiwahia, accepted $1415 ($2.93) for 16 heavier Angus/Hereford cross heifers and Bullock Hills, Pahiatua, sold two pens of Angus heifers between $3.20 and $3.25/kg. The yearling heifer section was also a small section but a good one.
Cattle sale prices are in an "interesting" place with spring still seemingly some way off yet.
Sheep (13,246): ewes (3,719); SIL (3,319), $96-$182; lambs (9,518); 40-50kg, $120-$142.50, $2.80-$3.37, lift; 36-40kg, $112.50-$136.50, $2.94-$3.46, lift; 31-35kg, $98-$119.50, $3.05-$3.65, lift; 25-30kg, $80-$104.50, $3.05-$3.44.
Cattle (1,049): steers; R3 (56), 548-603kg, $1700-$1850, $3.06-$3.13; R2 (339), 315-510kg, $950-$1672, $2.52-$3.58, lift; R1 (109), 206-280kg, $770-$1135, $3.63-$4.71; bulls; R2 (124), 348-606kg, $1050-$1780, $2.93-$3.28, lift; R1 (221), 196-368kg, $770-$1190, $2.60-$3.92, lift; heifers; R2 & 3 (138), 317-534kg, $975-$1415, $2.61-$3.25, lift; R1 (62), 105-262kg, $525-$880, $3.35-$5.00.