Price of prime hoggets eases slightly

Heavy male hoggets were harder to shift.

Another massive yarding of over 5600 prime hoggets at yesterday's Feilding Prime Stock Sale had everyone questioning how many more large hogget yardings are ahead.

The obvious answer is few, as the adult teeth are now emerging.

Hogget lines that had sheep with two adult teeth drafted out yesterday suffered around a $50/head discount for those with teeth through, so most vendors should be monitoring teeth emergence closely.

Such a large yarding needs all buying hands on deck, and a couple of recent buyers were standing back during this sale, which resulted in a sideways movement in prices initially but a general trend downwards as the sale progressed.

Overall, sale prices would have eased down by around $5/head with the very heavy male hoggets being harder to shift this week.

Only one pen sold for more than $140 this week and that was only a pen of three male hoggets from Maungatau, Pohangina Valley, which made $142.

Depending on purchase date (and price) most vendors would have made a margin on yesterday's sales and should now move on to the next part of the farming programme.

A few more ewes arrived for sale but this market was essentially steady. The constant rain may have held up docking, so there should be more wet/dries to turn up in coming weeks.

If we thought last week's cattle sale was small, then this week's offering was tiny. One pen would have stood out any week, however, when Ian Stewart, Palmerston North, sold a pen of 12 prime Angus heifers for $1561 ($2.88). Half a dozen boner cows did not a market make.

Sheep (6710): hoggets (5662); prime (5288), 41-60kg, $112-$142, $2.25-$2.80, ease; store (374), 26-36kg, $71-$109, $2.85-$3.00, steady; ewes (1019); good heavy, 26-32kg, $3.10-$3.30, steady; medium, 21-25kg, $61-$84, $3.00-$3.35; steady; lighter, 20kg, $57-$60, $2.80-$3.00, steady; poor sorts, $10-$31; 2ths (5), $80-$86; male sheep (24), $60-$82.
Cattle (25): heifers (19); 395-542kg, $861-$1561, $2.28-$2.88, firm; lesser sorts, 305-343kg, $651-$695, $1.90-$2.18; boner cows (6), 370-605kg, $658-$1070, $1.71-$1.86, steady.