Scanned-in-lamb ewes dominate at Deniliquin store sheep sale

Speculation of a promising winter lamb market kept buyers on their toes at Deniliquin’s store sheep sale in the NSW Riverina today.

Agents call for bids at today’s Deniliquin store sheep sale.

There was some clear bidding trends at today’s Deniliquin store sheep sale, with buyers wanting scanned-in-lamb ewes for a guaranteed early lamb and spending up on crossbred and store lambs amid speculation of a promising winter lamb market.

Young Merino ewes scanned in lamb to White Suffolk rams topped the market at $254 twice, while the best of the joinable first-cross reached $220.

The fickle part of the sale was unjoined crossbred and Merino ewes, with prices often under expectations although there was pens that sold strongly if a couple of buyers clashed.

Bill O’Brien, Nutrien Deniliquin, said the sale had its moments.

“The scanned-in-lamb ewes were $30 to $40 better than we anticipated, but a lot of the unjoined young ewes were $10 to $15 under what we thought even though there was some very good sheep here,’’ he said.

“Then the store lambs sold strongly, particularly the woolly Merinos which were $10 to $20 up.’’

The store lamb market is riding the wave of renewed confidence in the slaughter market after lambs bounced above 700c/kg cwt this January. At Deniliquin today crossbred store lambs sold from $79 to $150, with the main run of medium sized types averaging $108 per head, according to the National Livestock Reporting Service.

The Merino lambs with a bit of frame and size sold from $64 to $122 and averaged $89.

The premium prices paid for scanned-in-lambb ewes was linked into the season, with producers looking for a guaranteed early drop lamb to take advantage of summer feed which should carry into the autumn.

After paying $225 for scanned-in-lamb ewes one agent said the “job was already half done’’ thanks to green feed and the ewes already being well in lamb.

The top price of $254 was for Bowen’s big line of 545 Merino ewes, June/July 22 drop, November shorn and Lewisdale blood, which had been joined to White Suffolk rams in November and were scanned-in-lamb.

A major vendor was Andrew McConnell, from Belmont at Barham, who sold 1000 scanned-in-lamb Merino ewes due to a change in family circumstances. The ewes were a Triggervale blood, October shorn, and had been joined to White Suffolk rams in November. The young 2021 drop ewes made $254, the 2022 drop ewes to lamb for the first time made $240, while the older 2019 drop then nearly matched it at $230. These older ewes had scanned above 150pc.

“Being scanned-in-lamb has really made a difference in this market, it looks up to be $100 per head at times,’’ Mr McConnell said.

It was an observation that was reflected in figures from the NLRS which covered the sale. The scanned-in-lamb ewes were often over $200, whereas the bulk of the unjoined young Merino ewes sold from $100 to a top of $180 and averaged about $127. Apart from a few pens most unjoined Merino ewes were from $100 to $140.