Strong ewe prices at Corowa first-cross sale

First-cross ewes sold above $300 at Corowa on Thursday, but were deemed “not dear” by onlookers, with inconsistent prices across the rest of the yarding.

Feature lines of first-cross ewes sold to $315 at Corowa in NSW today to headline a sale that still displayed gaps in buying demand.

At least one selling agent declared “you can’t say these sheep are dear”.

The sale was the start of the major first-cross ewe sales which will sweep across Victoria and South Australia in coming weeks, and comprised about 10,000 rising 1½-year-old first-cross ewes which were all shorn and unjoined.

As always the action began on the annual draft bred by Bill Bott and son David, Emu Park, at Coreen, NSW. Bidding opened at $260 and steadily climbed to $315, with a repeat buyer from near Swan Hill taking a run of 570 ewes out of the pen of 793 which were March-April 2023-drop, September shorn and Gudair vaccinated.

The balance of the ewes were put up again and made $311 to another repeat buyer to start the sale on a solid note, as most onlookers had tipped around a $300 outcome based on current returns of $220-plus for good sucker lambs and a ballpark $100 for heavy old ewes.

Bill Bott and son David at the Corowa sheep sale.

But the following pens showed how it wasn’t going to be smooth sailing for auctioneers.

The 532 ewes Taravale bred by Col Harper from Ariah Park sold at $275 for 350 head, with the balance discounted down to $250.

The trend of buyers opting for smaller runs and a noticeable price difference of $30 to $40 emerging between drafts from the same pen was a hallmark of the sale.

It happened for the only other vendor to receive over $300, with Robert Harper’s pen of 440 first-cross ewes split into two lines – 300 selling for $302 and the balance making $264.

Corcoran Parker co-selling agent Clinton Rixon, Corowa, said three pens making above $300 didn’t tell the full story of the sale.

“The very top end was good and at $315 this sale has probably been as strong as anything we’ve seen this spring, but the market didn’t have the price consistency we would usually see across the first 20 pens,” Mr Rixon said.

“Instead of $20 difference there was $40 to $50 price differences and we did seem to run out of buying depth on the second run, and this wasn’t an overly big yarding.”

It was a comment mirrored by vendor Col Harper and son Max whose line of 1100 first-cross ewes sold from $175 to a top of $275.

“I would have liked to have said this was a $300 ewe sale but it wasn’t – it was tough enough really,” Col said.

Once off the opening name pens of really big ewes with a strong repeat buyer following, the rate was $170 to $240 over the bulk of the offering.

After watching the sale, breeder Bill Bott suggested the patchy season in Victoria had impacted the market.

“From what I understand there is still not a lot of feed in Victoria and the grazing areas are not in good shape season wise,” Mr Bott said.

“And I think the market here today has reflected that as the south tends to have more crossbred breeding operations.”

Action from the Corowa sheep sale.

At one stage during the sale Elders agent Steve Grantham interjected with a few frustrated words as bidding stalled at $220 on a pen of 1½-year-olds.

“This store sheep job is miles to cheap,” he told the crowd: “We had pens of sucker lambs here (at Corowa prime sale on the Monday) making more than these ewes. So if these ewes are not good buying I don’t know what is.”

When asked by The Weekly Times on his thoughts of the sale, Corcoran Parker agent Justin Keane replied: “Well you couldn’t say these sheep are dear”.

Buyers themselves agreed it was a good changeover on paper for those who had been selling good heavy lambs, but said there was still price and seasonal risk going forward.

Shane Fealy from Oaklands paid $264 for young ewes and said some price stability for mutton and lamb would help farmer confidence.

“At the moment these ewes look cheap enough but who knows what is going to happen down the track, we’ve seen the market go up and down pretty quickly. What we all need is some stability in the job,” he said.

Ewes from Corowa sold into the local southern NSW areas stretching from Deniliquin across to Wagga Wagga and the border area of Yarrawonga, plus South Gippsland, Bendigo and Euroa.

Crossbred ewes at Corowa sheep sale.

Key results included:

• WB Bott, Emu Park, Coreen: 793 ewes, March-April 2023-drop, September shorn, Gudair vaccinated: 570 at $315; 223 at $311; 200 at $262; 131 at $230.

• RN & RJ Harper, Cadel, Ariah Park: 440 ewes, August-September 2023-drop, September shorn, GV; 300 at $302; 140 at $264.

• Rebar, Germanagh, Balldale: 400 ewes, June-July 2023-drop, September shorn, GV, mulesed: 240 at $290; 160 at $264.

• CP Harper, Taravale, Ariah Park: 532 ewes, July 2023-drop, September shorn, GV: 350 at $275; 182 at $250; 544 at $230.

• P Drum, Dry Plain, Balldale: 200 ewes, April-May 2023-drop, September shorn, GV, $240.

• L Clifton & Sons, Kia Ora: 372 ewes, May-June 2023-drop, GV, mulesed, $230.