Hay sheep sale: Ewes to $314 in erratic sale

Hay’s sheep sale sets the tone for spring markets. And wildly erratic bidding saw rates hit $314 but the next pen making $100 less.

NSW farmers Tim and Col Durnan, Frying Pan Creek Pastoral at Narrandera, were able to purchase young Merino ewes in the front laneway of Hay this year after an erratic start to the sale. They paid $204 for 499 of the Brontë ewes - money they had originally thought wouldn't get them into the market until a laneway or so over. First-cross ewe breeders, they rated the Merino ewes as very buyable coming off an average of $265 for their young crossbred ewes last week. Picture: Jenny Kelly

The first 15 minutes of today’s special Merino ewe sale at Hay in NSW proved the most dramatic before the market settled and bidding gained some rhythm.

Ultimately the sale, which is viewed as the price barometer for all the spring store sheep sales that follow, showed the market is under pressure from the dry conditions in Victoria and a conservative approach by farmers to the amount of money they are willing to spend.

The yarding was in fantastic condition and auctioneers confidently stepped up to the first pen of big Yarto ewes bred by Greg and Helen Rogers, asked $290, and were greeted with silence by the crowd. Bidding eventually started at $240, and then it was a drawn out climb as a farmer from NSW took on repeat buyer Bill Bott, Coreen at Corowa, who has purchased these sheep for years.

The pen of 480 ewes took over three minutes to sell – a long time in the game of auctioneering when agents try to get momentum in a big sale like Hay – but it was worth the work with an eventual knock at $314.

However it was a short celebration with a $100 collapse into the next pen when the 558 ewes from Mutherumbung started at $180 and sold for $215, shocking some onlookers.

“Report that, report that, because there is no way there was $100 difference between those two pens of sheep,’’ The Weekly Times was told.

Both the Yarto and Mutherumbung ewes were April/May 2023 drop and Alma blood and off shears.

It set of a roller coaster ride along the front laneway of young ewes. Bidding bounced back up to $294 for the Daisy Plains ewes which have a strong repeat buyer following from specialist first-cross ewe breeders targeting big plain bodied sheep.

But there was still soft outcomes, including $204 for the lead of the Brontë ewes which sold to NSW farmers Tim and Col Durnan, Frying Pan Creek Pastoral at Narrandera, who were surprised to be purchasing in the first dozen pens at Hay.

“We normally buy in the next laneway back and as we had set a limit of around $200 and didn’t think we would get a look in at these ewes – they were $20 to $40 under where we thought they would be,’’ Tim said.

First-cross ewe breeders, the Durnans rated the ewes as very good buying considering they had averaged $264 for their young first-cross ewes last week.

The sale did settle down and find a more consistent price tempo on the second and third drafts at $160 to $240 for a lot of young 2023-drop ewes, with the smaller ewes $120 to $150.

Meat processors stepped into the market at this price range, paying $120-$130 for young mutton to kill.

Ultimately views on the sale varied depended on a person’s perspective, and comments to The Weekly Times included:

“These young ewes look a lot better investment to me than a $130 crossbred store lamb”;

“The start of the sale was a bit erratic but for prices to have hung-on like they did considering there is virtually no buying demand from Victoria – I reckon it has been a sensational outcome”; and

“You couldn’t go wrong buying any of these ewes today realistically, they are well worth the money.”

Vendor Graham Morphett, Yamba and Alma at Booligal, said after a rough start the sale had delivered an acceptable outcome, with averages supported by prices hanging one for second and third drafts as dollar per head buying kicked-in.

The Yamba ewes sold to $291 and the Alma’s made $250, $240 and $178.

“I didn’t think we would quite get to $300 today on our tops, and you could see at the start that no-one was sure what was going on or what to bid, but it did settle down and I thought the $178 for our third run was quite good after where things started,’’ he said.

The talking point of the sale was the lack of southern buying support, with only a handful of pens selling deep into Victoria, and the sale relying on the favourable seasonal areas of NSW.

Putting the Hay sale into perspective, some agents pointed to the low prices at the Jamestown Merino sale in South Australia yesterday which reportedly averaged less than $100 per head as that area struggles with drought like conditions.