WOOL DROPS AGAIN AT AUCKLAND SALE

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30602, 19 November 1964, Page 1

WOOL DROPS AGAIN AT AUCKLAND SALE

(New Zealand Press Association!

AUCKLAND, November 18. Any remnants of the rosy glow engendered by the high wool prices last season faded rapidly for Auckland sheepfarmers today in the face of a new and bleaker regime.

Prices at the second main sale of the Auckland season slid downward even further than at Napier last week to make wool cheaper by up to Is 3d a pound than it was at this time last year.

The market throughout the day was erratic, with buyers lacking confidence, competition generally lacking, and demand, in most cases, spasmodic.

The average price was estimated at about 43d a pound, or £6l for a 340-pound bale. This compares with an average of 46.68 d at the first Auckland sale last month and an average of 57.97 d at the November sale last year. Hogget wools and fine crossbreds took the biggest knock, falling by up to 3d a pound on the Napier levels and being up to 6d a pound cheaper than at Auckland in October. For coarser fleece wools and second-shear, the drop was not quite so pronounced. Second-shear was, in fact, described as the dearest wool on the day. From the outset, brokers found the market perplexing. Well-grown hogget wools, which usually command a premium, frequently brought no more than short lambs’ wool with six weeks to two months’ growth. Questioned about his reactions as early as the midmorning break, a broker said: “It’s so in and out that we’re not too sure where we are.

“Good fine hogget wools, which should be bringing

well over the 50d mark, are realising no more than 4s a pound, and coarse crossbreds are making as much or more than fine and medium wools." Discoloured Fleeces One telling factor in the market today was the general poor quality and style of the wool after a very wet season. Much of the offering of 25,797 bales showed yellow discolouration and shed and water stain. There was some criticism, too. of its presentation. The offering was dominated by hogget and second-shear wools and there was! a proportion of full-length' fleece and some lambs’ wool. It was early apparent that

growers’ reserves were based on price levels at earlier sales and at least 20 per cent of the offering was passed in unsold. It was said, too, that in some cases brokers even had difficulty in quitting it by private treaty later. At no stage did the sale become animated and for a long period this afternoon it was positively limping along. Even so. the top price of 62d was reached late in the day for a binned line' of two bales of Down-cross wool. The main buying strength came from the Continent, with support from the United States on coarser types and second-shear. i (Range of Prices. Page fi.)