The Weekly Times

Young Merino ewes sold to $252 at Jerilderie in southern NSW last week as restocker demand continued to push the best sheep above $200.

Nearly a dozen vendors with sheep in the 13,500 yarding received prices above $200 for 2016 ewes, with all but one pen being recently shorn.

Selling agent Trevor Basset, Elders Jerilderie, said prices had trended in a similar pattern to the recent feature sale at Hay, which is viewed as the industry benchmark for Merinos in the Riverina.

“All the ewes made their value on the day, and buyers did seem happy to pay around the $200 mark for young ewes if the quality was right,” he said.

Top price of $252 went to the Cameron family for their The Yanko-bred Merino ewes, which were May-June 2016 drop and September shorn.

The next best price being $240 for the lead draft of the Irroy ewes, which were August shorn and Woodpark blood.

Overall, 12 pens of ewes sold above $200, with most sales between $200 and $220.

Mr Basset said there was solid demand stretching from Bendigo in the south to Wagga Wagga, NSW.

He believed there was a shift back to mixed farming because of the consistency of wool and lamb returns.

“Grain is not great and people are putting some paddocks back to pasture as they can see if they had stuck with some sheep the returns would have been there,” he said.

The other factor buyers are starting to realise, Mr Basset said, is that a lot of sheep have already been sold out of NSW due to the dry conditions.

“We started selling a month earlier this year and a lot of sheep have already gone.”

There were reports this week that agents at Hay have cancelled their usual October sale due to a lack of numbers.

Once off the lead runs at Jerilderie last week, the second tier of young Merino ewes generally sold from $180 to $195, with the plainest and smallest 2016 drops down to about $160.

Older ewes also sold strongly, with the standout sale being $160 for Willandra’s five-year-old breeders.

• Jenny Kelly