What a couple of months it has been. The May 3 sale got everyone talking when store lamb tallies approached 19,000-head but as it turned out, it was the first of 10 consecutive large yardings. The narrative remains the same – a poor spring and slow lamb growth combined with hopes of collecting a few extra dollars created a backlog of lambs in the hills.
Over these 10 sales, the combined throughput has exceeded 160,000, which hasn’t been done in the same period since 2013.
Word on the street is that tallies will drop back significantly in the next few weeks and the year-to-date figures support this as we now sit in line with last year.
The large volume put pressure on the July 5 sale’s morning efforts and the sale was delayed 20 minutes while the last of the ewes were unloaded. It was just after midday before the last lambs were penned, but the auction had only moved to lambs 20 minutes prior.
Credit must be given to yardmen and agents as this is the largest number of lambs yarded in a single sale since April 2019, and the third largest in the last 10 years.
The store lamb throughput was significant on its own, but the addition of 2600 in-lamb ewes made it the largest yarding at Feilding since May 2014. Vendors of these picked their timing well and demand was strong. It was standing room only as the first pens went under the hammer and it didn’t thin much through the section. Ewes in good condition and scanning percentages above 170% were hot property and a line of 5- and 6-year Romney (183%) fetched $161, the top return of the day. Anything in more medium condition or scanned singles were discounted somewhat.
Demand for store lambs was obvious before they were even in the yards. Trucks from Hawke’s Bay rolled in overnight, ready to take lambs home.
Returns on the first run of male store lambs pushed slightly over $130, in line with previous sales. But as the weights came down and the potential to pack on weight arose, per kilogram returns spiked in parts. There was still variation in returns based on quality but as a whole, the market for males was slightly stronger.
It was always a possibility that demand would run out with such a large yarding. Vendors of ewe lambs toward the end of the sale were likely very nervous about this. The tension did ease though as ewe lambs were ticked off and steady returns were made in relation to the previous sale. Some of the higher figures achieved were attributed to even quality within pens of good ewe lambs.
One feature of note was the number of woolly pens in the yards and so there will be some busy woolsheds to come. Due to this, there was a good premium paid for shorn lines.
A full report of this sale was sent to LivestockEye subscribers on Friday evening, including lamb weights and per kilogram prices.
This article was written by AgriHQ analyst Fiona Quarrie. Subscribe to AgriHQ reports here.
