Wool Values Well Back On Last Year’s Rates

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29906, 21 August 1962, Page 20

Wool Values Well Back On Last Year’s Rates

There was not a very auspicious start to the new woolselling season in Christchurch yesterday. Almost all classes of wool, with the possible exception of a small amount of Merino fleece, was cheaper than at the corresponding sale last year. Crossbred fleece and fine wool crutchings showed the most decline on rates of a year ago and were cheaper by up to 4d and 5d per lb.

This sale confirmed the trend which was in evidence at the Timaru sale last Thursday, and for finer crossbred fleece and most halfbred fleece wool values eased slightly on southern rates. Crutchings. particularly fine wool sorts, had another difficult day with values at rather modest levels and passings fairly frequent. .

With new season’s fleece, second-shear wools and crutchings included in the entry for this offering it is not easy to predict the likely average return for this sale, but two authoritative estimates given last evening put the likely average price for the sale at 32d or about 4d per lb less than in August last year. If so, the overall cheque from the sale will be about £IOO.OOO lower than •would have been realised at last year's levels. Sharply Easier Crossbred fleece has slipped back sharply on opening rates ruling last season. Yesterday it was selling about 4d to 5d per lb lower and it was also hardly up to rates ruling at the end of last season—it looked to be Id to 2d per lb easier than in April. Fine wool fleece appeared to be more stable. It could have been Id to 2d per lb cheaper than at the winter sale last year and also fractionally easier than at the close of last season. Halfbred crutchings were back by 2d to 4d per lb on rates ruling last August and coarser crutchings were cheaper by up to 2d per lb.

The Wool Commission came into the market more frequently than has been the case at recent auctions in Christchurch and it was the fine wool crutchings that most often received its attention. Some 28 bales of wool •were passed to the commission’s floor price bid and this was virtually all fine wool crutchings. The commission placed its floor price bid 114 times or on about 5 per cent, of the total lots offered and occasionally it was involved in a transaction dealing with top fleece wool The commission placed a bid of 54d on three bales of fine halfbred wool, but a few seconds after it was passed to the commission it was taken up by the trade at 54jd. The commission gave another demonstration of the stimulating influence that its operations can have on the market. The 28 bales that •were passed to it were in five lots so that 109 of its bids were followed by more bids from trade interests. In one instance a line of Merino pieces that was languishing at 20d were satisfactorily sold at 27jd after the commission had given its floor price offer of 27d.

The market had a somewhat irregular note throughout the day and there was a fairly steady stream of passings throughout the seven hours’ selling. Late in the morning passings were running at about 16 per cent, of the bales offered, and a check over 500 bales towards the end of the sale showed that about 18 per cent, of the wool was not reaching vendors’ reserves at auction. There was little Merino wool in the offering, but selling to 50d it did much better than a year ago when the top price was only 441 d. The main weight of halfbred and Corriedale fleece sold at 45d to 49d, with a sprinkling of sales between 50d and 56d. The general run of crosr bred fleece sold in the 40d to 45d range, and only a handful of lots realised between 47d and old.

Crutchings Prices Average style halfbred crutchings sold mainly between 23d and 26d. with the best of the selection fetching from 27d to 33d. The bulk of the crossbred crutchings were traded at ~ o with top sales at Sad to 41d.

sold relatively well with fine wool making from 43d to 48Jd and three-quarterbred from 39d to 43d. Fine wool pieces ranged from 36d to 43d }* lt h .three-quarterbred at 31d t° 3‘Jd. and halfbred bellies realised from 31d to 37d with ’hree-quarterbred at 25d to

„ Tde , offering at 18.582 bales In 2315 lots was believed to be tne largest offering ever made f ? r » winter sale in Christchurch. and included a verv much bigger representation of new season's fleece, which was generally well grown and of good length, and while a little colour was showing it was still main of good colour Crutchings were similarly »ell grown and of good length but were inclined to be a little heavier in condition and also carrying some stain. Both fleece and crutchings were considered to be slightly better than av*ra*,e ' Some second-shear aso to hand frorn the West Coast and the Chatham J'.anas. Otherwise wools were x- r3W L r * from Marlborough and North and Mid-Canterbury.

Top Prices The top price of the sale of e a , ! L paid for bales of f ne halfbred wool in the ofTermg of binned wool made by the £>ew Zealand Fanners' CoAssociation Another toe bales of binned wool in th « National -lortgage and Agency Company, Jr' d ■ , reaJ . l J ed “d and Mid was paid for three bales from A G JXa 'JIT'L iScargilJi. who also ? ad « ®d Apart I™™ further binned entries. J 'Scar rill) also n’d bales at 53d forriedale wool sold to 53Jd ’”1 four ba’es from T H RuthU? >rd and for three bales A T B ack (Wa'au) rec*;ved 53 Id The estate J. J FTpat'ick (Le-mineton Valiev. Cheviot) sold fi-e bales at 52Jd and another 10 at s!id, and this v «? rice was a,so Paid to i, K Sloss iOmihii for 13 bales Mr Sloss also realised SOd for nine bales For six bales P A Carr (Waikari) received 5'M Merino sold m> to snd for four bales from M F Rvan and Sons (Awatere Valley). A tinned entry of Pyne. Gould. Guinness Ltd . also fetched 49Jd and Burrow* Bros. (Culverden) revived 47d for three bale* One of the too sales of three<juarterbred wool was made bv

p M M. Curd (Winchmore) with J four bales at 47Jd. This price a also went to a binned lot of ie eight bales in the catalogue of is Dalgetv and New Zealand Loan, v Ltd.. Sales at 47d were made ; by Wattslea Trust (Winchmorel . for four bales, E. J. and R. B. Coppard tAshburton) for seven it bales, C. L. Austin (Oxford) >r for four bales, and W. Reyeley j (Mount Somers) for five bales. 7 Eight bales of extra fine crossbred hogget from J. D. r- Cocks (Mayfield) sold for 51 d. 11 and the same vendor had n another seven bales at 4«d. F. Ellery (Ashburton! realised 49d for five bales, and L. D. Mulligan (Ashburton) sold four bales at 48 3 4 d. D. J. R_ Harrison (Rakaiai obtained 47%d for )- six bales, and sales at 47 1 2 d a were made by M. M. Curd for ® three bales and by Waimain \ Farm for three bales. d One of the best Romney wool lS sales was recorded by AJford o Station, Ltd. (Staveley), with five bales at 46’ 2 d. Two-shear wool sold up to b 47’ 2 d for four bales of crossbred hogget from S. M. Walj lace (Lake Haupiri). He also , had three bales at 43 3 4 d. 26 d bales at 43’zd. and three bales b at 43|d. Another six bales from r H. W. Williams (Westport) sold , for 44Jd. and C. N. Mackenzie 'Happy Valley. Motunau) sold e six halfbred at 43 3 4 d. N. C Davidson (Little River) also e was paid 43’ 2 d for three bales. „ For crossbred crutch!ngs. K. ] J. and H. W. Dalglish (Le Bons

Bay) received 41d for two bales and Pyne. Gould. Guinness Ltdhad four bales of binned wool which realised 39d. The National Mortgage and Agency sold anather three bales at 38 3 <d and the New Zealand Farmers' Co-operative Association had two bales at 38' 2 d. Another sale was made by B. H Pridie (Methven) with three bales at 38jd. t . Halfbred crutchings sold to 331 d for five bales of binned wool in the catalogue of Pyne, Gould. Guinness Ltd. Another three bales of binned wool in the same catalogue fetched 31d. Sales at 303« d were made by L. M. Doody (Whitecliffs), with four bales, and for five bales of binned wool in the catalogue of the New Zealand Farmers Co-operative Association. W. J. Doyle (Leeston) sold eight bales of Corriedale crutchings at 293 d. S. J. Murray (Cheviot) realised 29d for five bales, Kyenton Farm. Ltd. (Culverdenl received 283 d for seven bales, and J. W. Ensor (Garrymere ) gained 28d for four bales. Sales at 273 d were made by J. D. Fleming (Cheviot) for three bales and Beckenham Hills Estate (Ethelton) for seven bales. Four bales of Merino crutchings realised 28d for Richmond Brook Station (Seddon) and I. T. van Asch (Awatere) realised 24d for six bales.

Details of catalogues in order of sale were:—

N.Z. Farmers’ Co-opera-tive Association of Canterbury. Ltd. .. 3,058 National Mortgage and Agency Company of N.Z.. Ltd. . . 4.820 Pyne. Gould, Guinness Ltd. .. 4.546 Dalgety and N.Z. Loan. Ltd. .. 6.168 Total .. .. 18.592