“You won’t see a line-up of lambs anywhere like this,” Kerry Harmer said before the sale.
And she was proved right, Hazlett Rural livestock broker Geoff Wright said.
“It was a tremendous line-up of very good, long, strong lambs with more going prime than ever before,” Wright said.
Close to 9000 lambs were offered with all but 1500 going straight to processing with the tops of the ram lambs fetching $171 and the best of the ewe lambs topping $156.
“It’s been a very good year for Castle Ridge.
“The lambs have lacked a wee bit of sun but that’s been made up in the past two to three weeks,” he said.
Most of the flock is bred by the Harmers with Windermere Poll Dorset rams going over Merino ewes.
“All these lambs are out of Merino ewes and with the Poll Dorset length they weigh up very well,” Wright said.
In a first for Mt Somers Station David and Kate Acland offered 3800 mainly lighter crossbred lambs.
Taking advantage of the buoyant store market the Aclands were pleased with their $106 average sale price.
“They were very happy and talking to them it looks like this could become an annual event for Mt Somers Station.”
Wright said 600 halfbred down-cross lambs were also sold on behalf of the Whyte Farming Company at Hakatere. Again, it was the first on-farm sale for them with an average sale price of $119.
Further up the road Arrowsmith Station had its sixth annual on-farm sale selling close to 2000 Poll Dorset-Merino lambs.
Prime lambs fetched $125-$132 while store lambs ranged from $102-$119.
PGG Wrightson livestock broker John Farrell said the good, strong buyer gallery pushed prices higher than presale expectations.
“It was better than expected. The buyers were keen to bid and overall it was a very good sale buoyed by the strong store market and good confidence in the industry.”
