“There will still be a lot of ewes but the 103 rams we had here was 25 more than last year.”
The rams sold reasonably well in places with the usual wider Waikato-King Country focus on eczema-tolerant breeds.
A small number of lambs were passed-in.
Of the six vendors Hillcroft/Fraser Crawford achieved a slightly higher result than a year earlier, selling 18 rams at an average $1094.
J L and M H Reeves averaged $1808 for 24 rams and Reeves Farms 23 at $1685. Both the Waimai brand entities were slightly lower than last year but led the market.
Brookbank/Chris Brears was also slightly down at $1120 for five rams and Murvale Farm sold five at $620 average, similar to last year.
Alastair Reeves handled the Reeves sale entries and one of his Reeves Farms rams topped the sale at $4000, sold to a Te Akau buyer with another going to Hawke’s Bay for $3000.
Other buyers were from as far afield as Wairarapa and Manawatu.
There are ram sales around the country through November and December and Bougen says the lower ewe numbers might be a trend right through.
That also means January’s ewe sales should be very solid, with a lot of interest on how many are presented.
“There’s still a lot of confidence about and the recent rain up here is a good help,” he said.
Reeves sold all 47 rams he took to the sale and said good sheep had sold well.
There is good confidence in the sector and people are prepared to pay for genetics with lamb prices at $8kg-plus and likely peak-season prices around $7 or high-$6s likely to keep farmers happy.
Recent rain would provide lovely feed through to weaning in the region.
However, farmers who had cut back their flocks during earlier poor earnings years are still not back buying yet and the industry needs more than one very good year of earnings to get the numbers back up.
Reeves doesn’t believe the high mutton prices encouraged farmers to put too many ewes to the works but the high prices are positive because they should underpin the breeding ewe market.
Older ewes being culled are being replaced by well-bred younger ewes and hoggets, which is a positive.
“We need sheep to be good, we need the right animals.”
He said there isn’t any talk about wool in the ram market.
“The talk is about fertility and growth and meat.”
