Stock sales around the region

FEILDING STORE STOCK SALE FRIDAY JULY 14

Stock entries for this sale were absolutely decimated by the stormy weather with road closures and on-farm conditions leaving many vendors unable or unwilling to consign stock in both the sheep and cattle sections. The same reasons also affected many buyers and very few were operating. As a consequence, sale prices were clearly affected and there will be further ongoing effects as vendors try to offload when they can. Two useful pens of scanned in lamb ewes were offered at the start of the sale and, after firming recently, these did look to be cheap enough again today. 174 shorn, scanned 5 year old ewes from Agresearch, Aorangi, sold for $151with a good scanning percentage of 174%.

Four pens of good male lambs started the lamb section and these would have enhanced any lamb yarding. Potaka Station, ReuReu, sold 245 cryptorchids for $134 and 262 more for $133. Merchison Estate, Hunterville, also received $133 for 168 ram lambs. This part of the lamb offering was affected the least with regard to sale prices. Once the ewe lambs and medium to lighter lambs were offered, the sale prices clearly eased and lambs were passed in. G& J Adkins, Wanganui, sold 182 ewe lambs for $106.50 to top the ewe lamb sections but many lambs sold for prices not seen for some weeks. It would be reasonable to expect prices to lift again once the weather and track conditions improve. The cattle yards were a sorry sight with only 13 lines of cattle entered and those better quality cattle available stood out like beacons.

These were from two vendors with T& G Eade, Marton, selling two pens of rising two year Angus steers the top 16 selling for $1635 ($3.28). WD Falkner, Marton, offered the other entry of better cattle with two pens of rising two year Angus heifers. The top dozen of these sold for $1300 ($2.94). These two lines of cattle sold at comparable cents/kg levels to recent weeks but the rest of the cattle yarding was not inspiring and probably just there to be got rid of.

Sheep (2,557): ewes (493), SIL (210), $146-$151; lambs (2,064); 41-45kg, $120-$134, $2.68-$3.26, slight ease; 36-39kg, $98.50-$111, $2.66-$3.10, ease; 31-34kg, $84-$105, $2.58-$3.20, ease; 26-30kg, $69-$86, $2.62-$2.95, ease.

Cattle (89): steers; R2 (30), 410-498kg, $1150-$1635, $3.28-$3.31; R1 (8), 207-255kg, $750-$910, $3.16-$3.57; bulls; R2 (6), 347kg, $1000, $2.88; heifers; R2 (29), 265-441kg, $620-$1300, $2.34-$3.16; R1 (16), 190-237kg, $570-$750, $3.00-$3.52.

FEILDING PRIME SALE MONDAY JULY 17

The supply/demand equation moved in favour of the vendors at this sale with more than one thousand fewer prime lambs offered for sale and a couple of lamb buyers moving into the ewe pens which resulted in a lift in lamb sale prices by around $4/head and a firming in ewe sale prices as well. Those with prime lambs contracted to sell are competing for every pen of lambs now and none are slipping through. The top price was not at the extraordinary levels seen from time to time as, this week, Tony Collis’s ‘‘Gordon Downs’’ sold 206 shorn male lambs for $170 to top the sale but this vendor sold over 500 lambs last week and many other male lambs easily exceeded $160. The most competitive weight range continues to be the 17-21kg carcase weight range and these lambs are still achieving the highest cents/kg but there was a hint of the gap to the heavy males closing this week.

Store lambs were firm, certainly firmer than last Friday’s storm store sale, without lifting to the extent of the prime lambs. Ewes firmed across all weight ranges without big numbers of heavy ewes but enough two-tooths for those wanting good cutting ewes to operate. The cattle sale was a mid-winter affair. A couple of dairy cross steers sold to firming demand. Over half of the heifers offered were in-calf and sold over a wide range of cents/kg up to $2.82/kg for two good Jersey cross heifers with the better Hereford/ Friesian heifers around the mid-$2.70’s. Cow numbers eased further with sale prices firming on boners and no great weight on offer.

Sheep (5,542): lambs (4,172); heavy prime (1,449), 50-60kg, $154-$170, $2.80-$3.10, lift; medium prime (2,286), 37-50kg, $124-$152, $2.90-$3.30, lift; store (437), 26-42kg, $51-$137, $2.00-$3.40, firm; ewes (1,314); heavy (49), 26kg, $118-$120, $4.50-$4.60, firm; medium (715), 21-25kg, $85-$117, $4.00-$4.65, firm; lighter (178), 16-20kg, $59-$81, $3.60-$4.00, firm; 2ths (272), $78-$118; male sheep (56), $47-$113.

Cattle (75): steers (2), 450-480kg, $1264-$1272, $2.65-$2.81, firm; heifers (52); 390-627kg, $982-$1768, $2.40-$2.82; lesser sorts, 370kg, $488, $1.32; in-calf (29); cows (19); good, heavy, in-calf, 490-570kg, $980-$1191, $2.00-$2.09, firm; boners, 487-600kg, $925-$1140, $1.90-$1.99, lift; lesser sorts, 330-395kg, $435-$632, $1.32-$1.60; bulls (2), 440-880kg, $889-$1584, $1.80-$2.02.

MANFEILD PARK CALF SALE MONDAY JULY 17

The first calf sale of this new selling season attracted a good bench of buyers to nearly 100 calves. A highlight was the sale of two 5 week old Friesian bull calves for $385.

Bulls: Friesian; good, $240-$295; medium, $135-$230; W/F; good, $290-$300; medium, $140-$160. Heifers: W/F; $200.