Buyers fight over lambs at Feilding

The sheep yarding yesterday was smaller than advertised which left the buyers fighting over 1400 fewer lambs than last week.

Whether this was the reason for the lift in sale prices is uncertain but lamb sale prices certainly lifted by 15-20 cents/kg for the better lambs (or $4-5/head) and 10-15 cents/kg for the lighter-medium lambs.

On regular buyer cleaned up all the better lambs, which were not in great numbers anyhow, leaving the rest of the buyers to fight over the light-medium lambs.

Top sale price was $95 for 246 mixed sex blackface lambs from "Corofin", Colyton, dropping back to $90.50 for the top cut of 43 from JG Rivers, Kumeroa.

A farmer with surplus grass is their own worst enemy as there does seem little justification for lamb prices to be lifting at this time and lambs are generally not weighing well.

It has been another big week in the cattle yards with over 2,000 dairy beef weaners already sold on Thursday.

With strong demand, especially from regions on the East Coast, sale prices were at least steady and lifting for the medium Friesian bulls by up to $40/head.

The yarding was dominated by Friesian bulls and average weights were higher than the last sale, including for the heifers which also sold well.

The Friday store cattle sale was a large offering, especially of yearling steers, but there did appear to be a few gaps on the buying benches.

FJ O'Neill and Sons, Kakatahi, sold 15 Hereford/Shorthorn cross three year old steers for $1900 ($3.00) to lead the market with the Struan Jones Childrens' Trust, Stanway, selling 12 Charolais cross two year steers for $1810 ($2.95). Straight Angus steers sold at an obvious premium to the other beef breeds.

This carried through into the yearling steer section and "Waimanawa", Newbury, sold 20 Angus yearling steers for $1535 ($3.21).

The sheer number of yearling steers at 724 head did weigh the market down somewhat and some vendors could have easily held steers back and put more weight on them although the current store sale money does hold some appeal.

Bulls were not in large numbers and were steady to slightly easing and the older bulls could not exceed $3/kg this week. By and large, the bull sections were uninspiring with regard to weight and sale prices.

Eight forward South Devon cross yearling bulls from Heaton Park Holdings, Bulls, caught the eye at $1270 ($2.80) but bulls did ease overall.

Heifers were in much the same boat as the bulls on low numbers by comparison to the steers but held up reasonably.

Not much stood out in the older heifers but Alex Hall, Colyton, sold a dozen attractive Simmental cross yearling heifers for $1110 ($3.26) in a section that may have eased back by up to 10 cents/kg on what was a firm section last week.

Sheep (7,257): ewes (277), $41-$81; lambs (6,980); 31-37 kg, $84-$95, $2.47-$2.70, lift; 26-30 kg, $65-$80.50, $2.43-$2.98, lift; 21-25 kg, $52-$68, $2.47-$3.02, lift.
Cattle (1,688): steers; 3yr (27), 607-633 kg, $1660-$1900, $2.73-$3.00; 2yr (353), 310-642 kg, $855-$1810, $2.61-$3.36, firm; 1yr (724), 192-477 kg, $740-$1535, $2.64-$4.02, ease; bulls; 2yr (73), 380-546 kg, $1060-$1590, $2.72-$2.96, slight ease; 1yr (83), 207-452 kg, $600-$1270, $2.65-$3.05, ease; heifers; 2yr (96), 281-485 kg, $830-$1370, $2.76-$3.36, firm; 1yr (332), 196-363 kg, $520-$1115, $2.65-$3.40, ease.