Values back for Jerilderie sheep compared to Hay sale

Merino ewes sold to $385 at the Jerilderie sheep sale. See the price ranges and our expert analysis of the sale.

After a good opening of $385 for the heaviest pen of young Merino ewes at Jerilderie last Friday, bidding then fizzled to often perform below expectations.

The annual John Wells Memorial Sheep sale was the second feature offering of Merinos in the Riverina this spring, and bidding didn’t have the depth of the opening market at Hay earlier this month.

The second pen at Jerilderie came back to $338. Overall, fewer than 10 pens of 2021-drop ewes sold above $300, and within the first 30 minutes of the sale bidding bounced from $205 to the top of $338.

The sale followed more heavy rain last week, again causing problems for producers wary of trying to transport and put stock into waterlogged paddocks. More rain fell on the day of the sale and the crowd was judged to be smaller than it usually would be for such a feature yarding.

Jason Andrews, livestock manager from Elders Deniliquin takes bids in the wet at the Jerilderie sheep sale.

The market was interfaced with AuctionsPlus, although just six pens of sheep were bought online. The balance sold to agents and farmers at the auction.

The Jerilderie sale is renowned for its wool-cutting ewes, and doesn’t have as many big plain-bodied sheep as the opening Hay sale, which topped at $440 in early September.

While it makes direct comparisons between markets difficult due to the difference in style of ewe, many market followers rated Jerilderie as $40 to $80 off the pace of Hay.

The top price of $385 at Jerilderie was for the heaviest ewes in the yarding. With an assessed weight of 70.9kg, the 210 ewes were bred by the noted Willandra Merino operation and sold to repeat buyers the Gooden family, Yirdeen Farms at Lockhart in NSW.

Selling agents said the bigger and plainer bodied ewes sold to the best demand on the day.

The next best price of $338 was achieved by another noted name in the Jerilderie yards, going to Sleigh Pastoral for 380 ewes which weighed 60kg liveweight. Only a couple of bids behind at $334 were the Irroy Merino ewes, which averaged 63kg.

Agent David Rankin, Elders Jerilderie, said he was still satisfied with the result when viewed alongside current wool, mutton and lamb returns, plus the disruption of the wet weather.

“You can’t really do comparisons to last year as those sales were one out of the box, and you can’t really compare Hay to Jerilderie as they are different yardings of sheep,’’ he said.

“In reality the wool job is back, and so is lamb and mutton so there had to be a correction somewhere.’’

The Jerilderie yarding, which included older ewes, averaged $250 a head.

In the older Merino ewes the big rising 5.5-year-old Irroy Merino ewes sold for $168 on a weight of 67kg, and the Sleigh Pastoral ewes $165 for 68kg liveweight.

The lower priced young Merino ewes at $165 to about $230 tended to be the low 50kg weight ranges and would generally need some more time and growth before joining.

Sheep sold north to Narrandera and Wagga Wagga, and south into the Bendigo and Wycheproof areas. Some usual buying regions were missing, linked to flooding and wet conditions.