Feilding store stock sale

Lack of entries at the hogget fair show it's off-season.

Stock entries at yesterday's Feilding Prime Stock Sale continued their seasonal decline, and reasonable numbers of prime lambs would have been withheld for this week's Feilding and Marton Hogget Fair.

Long gone are the days when this hogget fair would have attracted two days of up to 20,000 hoggets on both days, which only illustrates the drop in sheep numbers but also shows that the season has been difficult.

The reduced entries for this coming hogget fair also illustrate just how good this Monday prime sale has generally been for prime lamb vendors. Monday entries have been relatively high all season, thus reducing the numbers left for a hogget fair.

This particular prime lamb sale was very strong and cents/kg levels reached a new high for this season yesterday. Only around 1000 prime hoggets gave the main buyers little to fight over.

Top price yesterday was $184 for 42 male lambs from JJ Farms, and Glen Hill sold 43 rather prime ewe lambs for $179. While these individual prices were not as high as last week, overall the cents/kg levels increased 10-20 cents for all weight ranges.
Nearly 300 store lambs sold at firm levels.

Not at all surprisingly, given the time of year, ewe entries were also reduced again and ewes sold to firm demand without the lift of the lamb section, although the heaviest ewes improved. Overall, ewe quality was not high.

Two big steers started the cattle auction. These blokes would have been making big divots in their paddocks at home and Rick Bullen would have been pleased to sell them for $2212 ($2.80). Steer prices eased slightly in line with the prime cattle market and only one heifer was offered and she sold for $1624 ($2.80).

A good proportion of the cow entry were better yielding cattle but there is little spark in this market at present with declining sale prices and only one bull was offered.

Sheep (2295): lambs (1315); heavy prime (394), 50-64kg, $163-$184, $3-$3.30, lift; medium prime (635), 40-50kg, $129-$154.50, $3.10-$3.30, lift; store (286), 32-38kg, $100-$129, $3.10-$3.50, firm; ewes (960); good, heavy (169), 26-28kg, $126-$137, $4.80-$4.90, lift; medium (504), 21-25kg, $91-$120, $4.35-$4.80, firm; lighter (187), 16-20kg, $61-$87, $3.80-$4.35, firm; 2ths (96), $113.50-$117; male sheep (20), $38-$119.

Cattle (73): steers (4), 450-790kg, $1125-$2212, $2.50-$2.80, slight ease; heifer (1), 580kg, $1624, $2.80; cows (67); good, heavy, 550-690kg, $1028-$1311, $1.75-$1.90, ease; boners, 466-570kg, $792-$991, $1.68-$1.85, steady; bull (1), 730kg, $1883, $2.58.

Manfeild Park Calf Sale

The largest calf sale to date this season, with around 550 calves, caused a few problems for the crew yesterday. Sale prices remained firm.

Bulls: Friesian; good, $200-$250; medium, $150-$180; lesser, $80-$120; H/Fr x; good, $300-$385; medium, $180-$280; A/Fr x; good, $300-$340; medium, $140-$200; Speckled Park; good, $350-$400.

Heifers: H/Fr x; good, $180-$250; medium, $140-$180.