Another Ewe Fair Season

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30390, 14 March 1964, Page 7

Another Ewe Fair Season

rpHE normal round of North and Mid-Canterbury ewe fairs ended on Thursday at Coalgate, but the season is not yet quite finished as this year an additional fixture in the form of a fine wool sale will be held at Tinwald next Thursday. Until early January the predictions were that this season’s round of fairs would be one of the dearest ever, backed by near-boom wool prices and up to that stage a season that was admittedly slow and cold for Canterbury but one that certainly gave no hint of the change that was soon to come. Summer suddenly descended with the holidays safely over and almost overnight the word “drought” was on farmers’ lips, and as on so many occasions in the past the weather and the feed outlook have overshadowed trading at the fairs. This was not a season when, to use a term popular in auctioneering parlance, “the first are the cheapest.” On this occasion the early buyers paid the most and early sellers were fortunate. The round of fairs got away to an excellent start at Tinwald with a record breaking entry of 36,000 young ewes. The £6 Ils paid to C. Culloty (Ashburton) for 118 Romneys was not subsequently bettered at any Romney sale and values were running about 16s ahead of a year earlier for a sample of the yarding. The first of the major fine wool fairs soon followed at Amberley with the southern section sale and It was certainly the high point of this section of the series. Twotooths were running about IBs ahead of the previous year, four-year-olds were on average up about 16s, and five-year-olds by slightly less than 10s. Four-year-old ewes soared to 89s and there were several other sales close at hand, and five-year-olds touched 745. These were also high points not to be bettered during the series. Ail the time the province was getting drier and it was about this time that there was a turning point in the series. At Hawarden prices began to curve downwards. Whereas up to this stage vendors had been showing a premium over the previous season, now some were making sales no better than a year earlier, some were still doing better and others again were not doing so well. This sort of situation persisted through the second main week of selling. The second Amberley fair was weaker. Values for twotooths at Little River were good but did not show anything like the gain on the previous season recorded earlier at Tinwald. The good reputation of the Culverden sheep helped to ease the heat

of the day but only to a degree.

Then some highly variable rain fell over the province and one of the fortunate districts was Oxford and the fair here, coming hot on the heels of the rain, showed a worthwhile recovery with all classes of ewes meeting a sound sale. But the following day at Sheffield values dropped back to one of the low points of the series with prices for two-tootbs no better than in the previous year and older ewes definitely cheaper on average. Before this week’s Coalgate fair more rain fell and with recently parched paddocks in the surrounding country already starting to show a green sole there was a healthy background to the sale and there was again a le *el of values that on average was better than last year. The present series have been disappointing, perhaps to optimistic vendors, but on the whole prices have not been too bad for vendors and they have been mainly reasonable for buyers. Observers have described them as realistic and in that sense in the interests of the farming community in general. In the fairs covered.by this review yardings this season have totalled 237,468, which is almost 12 per cent up on last season. Apart from the £6 Ils Romney two-tooths at Tinwald, fine wool young ewes sold up to £5 13s paid for 248 Corriedales from T. G. Maxwell (Glen Gynk) at the first Amberley fair. Four-year-old ewes rea-

lised to 89s for 407 halfbreds from J. and S. McLean (Cotswold) and Romneys of this age group made to 81s for R. T. Latimer and Son (Shepherds Bush). G. A. McLean (Drynie) registered the highest price for five-year-old fine wool ewes—74s for 171 halfbreds—and Patterson Bros. (The Meadows) received 67s for 65 Romneys. Incidentally at Addington this week N. C. Davidson (Te Oka) sold five-year-old Romneys for a handsome 72s 6d. The following is an approximate range of values for the fairs: Two-tooth Ewes. Best Romneys, £5 to £6, good 88s to 98s, average 78s to 87s, others 60s to 755. Best fine wools, 90s to £5, good 80s to 88s, average 70s to 78s, and others 50s to 655. Four-year-old Ewes.—Best, 70s to 80s, good 58s to 68s, average 48s to 565, and others 38s to 48s.

Five-year-old Ewes.—Best 60s to 70s, good 48s to 58s, average 40s to 48s, others 32s to 395.