Lukewarm store sheep sale on hot day at Corowa
Auctioneers have worked hard at Corowa to maintain values on the heavier first-cross ewe lambs that opened the latest sale there, with mixed results.
DEMAND was keenest for lightweight first-cross ewe lambs at Corowa in NSW last week in another sheep sale that lacked spark.
Like Deniliquin the week prior, the market on the top pens of sheep was just steady with auctioneers working hard to maintain values on the opening run of heavier first-cross ewe lambs.
The opening of the sale was reasonable, with the first pen of early drop first-cross ewe lambs from the Bruce family of Avondowns at Barooga selling for $362.
They were pushed along by AuctionsPlus bidding, with the crowd at the auction itself fairly subdued.
The 157 ewes were May/June ’20 drop, September shorn, and had been weighed at an average of 57.6kg.
The adjoining pen, of the same number and weight, sold for $350.
The sale then lost some momentum, with some of the heaviest ewe lambs in the yarding at 58kg from the McLaurin family of Yarra View selling for $320.
The 5500 yarding comprised all young crossbred ewes, and the majority were showing signs of the now dry season and lacked the bloom of the big feature spring markets.
But while the sale was sticky enough on the lead runs, the lighter weight lambs sold exceptionally well to often track within $20 to $30 of the opening lots despite a lot less growth and condition.
It prompted Nutrien Benalla livestock agent David Welsh to liken it to the heated weaner sales where little calves have been selling at record money.
He had paid $350 for the second pen of ewe lambs sold.
“Prices for most ewes sort of got there, but the early top pens were a bit back on other markets,’’ Mr Welsh said.
“But once the sale moved onto the smaller ewe lambs it was like a weaner sale.’’
Converting the prices to cents per kilogram liveweight values highlights the trend.
At $320 for the heaviest ewe lambs at 58kg works out to 551c/kg.
Late in the auction there was ewe lambs at 34kg that made $282, or the equivalent of 829c/kg.
Breeder Peter Holmes, Homewood at Baddaginnie, sold a run of 500 May/June drop lambs. The tops made $310, and then both the seconds and thirds made $278.
“I thought the whole sale might have been a bit stronger, and prices did strengthen as the market went on,’’ Mr Holmes said.
“Some of the younger and lighter ewe lambs sold very well.”
Overall, the bulk of the ewe lambs sold in a range of $260 to $310.
The sale did lack southern support from areas such as the Western District and Gippsland which is usually the backbone of this market, some suggesting the heat weather and COVID-19 border restrictions deterring some people.
Agents did handle phone orders from the south.
One the issue of lightweight lambs selling better than the top lots, most of the crowd were seeking ewe lambs to growout to one and a half-year-old rather than for joining now.
MORE
AUSTRALIAN AG’S MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE REVEALED