Manawatu stock sales

Feilding Store Stock Sale Friday July 22

At just under 20,000 sheep, the store sheep sale was a bit larger than expected and was more a typical mid-winter store sheep sale with many pens but mostly consisting of smaller lines.

Scanned ewes are still in solid demand. The top 115 romney fourtooths from Roskild Farm, Masterton, sold for $146 and 45 run-with-ram blackface ewes from Tyrone Trust, Halcombe, sold for $142 and the first of the ewes with lambs at foot for the season were sold.

The store hogget section did not have the lines of heavier, nearly prime lambs that were offered last week . The top 127 ram hoggets from ‘‘Kaiwhata’’, Masterton, sold for $118, followed by R & M Henry, Dannevirke, with 73 ram hoggets at $117 and ‘‘Glendevon’’, Umutoi, sold 109 cryptorchids for $117. The medium ewe hogget section was the firmest section of the day with a few more buyers operating there. 84 woolly ewe hoggets from Lex Mckenzie, Apiti, topped the medium ewe hogget section at $107 and, although ewe hoggets were still slightly discounted to the male hoggets, all the hoggets were cleaned up.

The cattle sale was also a typical mid-winter sale with lines of lighter and lesser quality cattle being put up and sale prices slightly easing in line with that quality. The two year old steers featured the first drafts of some regular vendors and the better traditional steers sold well. H Procter, Oroua Road, sold 10 angus/hereford two year steers for $1805 ($3.17) to record the day’s top money.

Bulls continue to sell to firm demand.

Heifers were not inspiring this week. Both age groups of heifers eased. A pen of 12 charolais cross yearling heifers from Maungatau Farm, Pohangina Valley, stood out clearly and sold for $945 ($3.17) which was the top yearling price of the day for any gender. That same vendor had earlier sold a number of lines of vetted-in-calf cows to firm demand.

Sheep (19,871): ewes (2,486); SIL (2,093), $61-$146; RWR, $78-$142; ewes with lambs at foot, $50-$66; hoggets (17,329); 36-42 kg, $106-$118, $2.75-$2.95, barely steady; 31-35 kg, $91-$107, $2.77-$3.07, barely steady; 28-30 kg, $81-$92, $2.80-$3.06, slight ease.

Cattle (898): steers; R3 yr (61), 452-585 kg, $1380-$1650, $2.82-$3.11, slight ease; R2 yr (157), 343-568 kg, $1000-$1805, $2.91-$3.31, firm; R1 yr (113), 128-278 kg, $595-$910, $2.95-$4.48, steady; bulls; R2 yr (91), 414- 545 kg, $1305-$1705, $3.11-$3.20, firm; R1 yr (70), 112-266 kg, $555-$935, $3.16-$4.95, slight ease; heifers; R2 yr (120), 302-386 kg, $840-$1170, $2.76-$3.07, slight ease; R1 yr (194), 102-298 kg, $405-$945, $2.61-$3.74, slight ease; cows VIC (92), 448-577 kg, $940-$1300, $2.09-$2.59. Rongotea Sale July 20 A smaller yarding of prime cattle on offer today as prices stayed even too previous week’s sale.

Friesian 2 year steers 448kg made $1175 ($2.61).

White face 2 year heifers 440kg459kg made up to $1270 ($2.47-$2.79) and cross bred heifers 435kg made $1070 ($2.45).

Cross bred yearling bulls 335kg made $900 ($2.68) and 255kg-260kg made up to $770 ($2.86-$3.01).

Friesian yearling steers 251kg made $730 ($2.90) and 186kg made $550 ($2.95).

Friesian yearling heifers 194kg255kg made up to $580 ($2.27-$2.62), white face heifers 155kg made $500 ($3.22) and cross bred heifers 187kg made $400 ($2.13).

Autumn born friesian bulls 110kg125kg made up to $555 ($4.44-$5.04), speckled park bulls 103kg made $460 ($4.45) and white face bulls 115kg made $480 ($4.17).

Friesian in-calf heifers 543kg made $1345 ($2.47), 441kg-484kg made up to $1260 ($2.40-$2.74) and 365kg405kg made up to $895 ($2.14-$2.45). Cross bred in-calf heifers 401kg422kg made up to $1190 ($2.74-$2.86) and jersey in-calf heifers 327kg-350kg made up to $800 ($2.07-$2.28).

Friesian boner cows 542kg-600kg made up to $1045 ($1.73-$1.78), 437kg445kg made up to $785 ($1.60-$1.76) and cross bred boners 530kg made $935 ($1.76).

Porkers made $120 and weaner pigs made $60-$85 depending on size and quality. Mixed sex lambs made $69-$80. 150 calves on offer today, Good Friesian bulls made $200-$220, mediums $170-$190 and smalls $130-$160. Good white face bulls made $300-$350, mediums $270-$290 and smalls $200-$260. Good white face heifers made $260-$320, mediums $220-$250 and smalls $170-$210.

Feilding Prime Stock Sale Monday July 18

There may have been a bitingly cold wind blowing through the sheep pens but the bidding action for lambs and ewes was approaching white-hot. The market strength was in spite of a lamb yarding over 5500 with nearly 3000 adult sheep to follow so there were plenty of sheep to go around.

Whereas last week saw 920 lambs sell for more than $130, this week 1020 lambs sold for more than $135 which does give some indication of the market lift. Clare Crawley sold 17 big blackface male lambs to top the leader board and Craig England would be happy with $144 for 54 male lambs. As usual, the medium weight lambs sold at higher cents/kg than the monsters but the heavyweight discount is reducing.

Nearly 2000 store lambs were offered, admittedly most were forward store and sold right up to Friday levels.

After some slight easing in the ewe pens last Monday, the market swung around and ewe sale prices lifted between $3/head at least to around $6/head for many pens. As mentioned, yarded numbers were plenty and demand lifted in line with South Island inquiry and general buying interest. Large numbers of empty two-tooths are still coming forward from scanning.

In contrast, the cattle sale continues to be subdued. The steers and heifers are not offering much weight and sale prices are basically marking time without many numbers putting any pressure on prices with those prices fluctuating around the $2.60/$2.70/kg level and the steers, particularly, trading in a narrow range.

The best of the cows were friesians and in-calf friesians as the better beef cross cows were only medium quality and cow sale prices eased around 10 cents/kg. .

4 biggish service bulls sold to firm demand for their type.

Sheep (8,370): lambs (5,515); prime (3,546), 40-62 kg, $105.50-$147, $2.45-$2.80, lift; store (1,969), 25-39 kg, $60-$114, $2.40-$3.10, firm; ewes (2,249); good, heavy, 26-30 kg, $75-$94, $2.85-$3.10, lift; medium, 21-25 kg, $60-$75, $2.80-$3.00, lift; lighter, 16-20 kg, $45-$58, $2.80-$2.90, lift; 2ths (535), $61-$75; male sheep (71), $39-$60.

Cattle (111): steers (5); 325-510 kg, $845-$1326, $2.59-$2.60, steady; heifers (8), 375-490 kg, $993-$1219, $2.30-$2.77, steady; lesser sorts, 310-360 kg, $570-$756, $1.84-$2.10; cows (94); good, heavy, in-calf, 540-584 kg, $1058-$1109, $1.90-$1.96, ease; boners, 380-570 kg, $663-$1048, $1.58-$1.90, ease; bulls (4); 685-760 kg, $1972-$2204, $2.88-$2.90, firm.

Manfeild Park Calf Sale Monday July 18

This series of calf sales has kicked off with around 100 calves put in front of a good bench of buyers.

Bulls: Friesian; good, $200-$270; medium, $160-$185; white face; good, $300-$350; medium, $250-$280.

Heifers: White face: good, $290-$325; medium, $250; angus cross; good, $240.