Only coarsest wools hold their price in Timaru sale

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32430, 17 October 1970, Page 22

Only coarsest wools hold their price in Timaru sale

Values for most classes of wool continued to ease when the second Timaru sale of the season was held in St Patrick’s Hall yesterday.

And, according to some people in the trade, the end of this downward trend may not yet be in sight.

But if prices were at! modest levels with the! bulk of the selection ofj fine and coarse fleece bringing between a narrow 23c and 36c, there was at least a fairly ■ sound inquiry at these | levels. In the first four cata-i logues of the day more; than 95 per cent of the; new season’s fleece went into consumption under! the hammer. The sale was strongest for the coarsest wools—coarse | and stronger crossbreds I showing a fractional improve-; ment on Auckland rates earl-1 ier in the week. The coarser wools in the’

1 Wool Commission’s, offering i . from its stockpile, although ) i making only about 23c or 24c ] per lb, attracted some of the i ‘most spirited bidding of the j sale. ! Medium crossbred fleece i sold very steadily on late < ; rates, but finer crossbreds ( i tended to be easier and extra , 1 fine were back fully 2| per i I cent to 5 per cent, little of 1 (this wool selling at more than ! 131 c or 32c. i Crossbred wooDy hogget wools ! iwere described as fully 2J per I cent cheaper, skirtings were in ■ buyers’ favour, and second-shear . unchanged. The main weight of fine crossIbred fleece brought from about . 26c to 30c per lb, medium cross- ! breds from chiefly 24c to 26c, and stronger sorts from 23c to ! 25c. Fine wools slip The fine wool market also conItinued to slip, on average about . |2i per cent. There was a fair representation ;of Merino from inland Mid-Can- ! 1 terbury and South Canterbury, ‘

• Including the Mackenzie Country. (Although these wools continued Ito sell at low levels mainly between 30c to 36c —only four sales i being made at better than 40c—- . growers seemed more prepared to meet the market on this occasion and there was not the same 1 procession of passings as at recent sales. However, Merinos and extra fine halfbreds and Corriedales were back 21 per cent on this’ month’s Christchurch sale, and other halfbred fleece, woolly hog-, gets, and skirtings, were aUI cheaper by up to 21 per cent. There was, however, a premium for specialty wools in this cate- j ‘ gory, and severs} sales were . made at more than 40c. ! The bulk of the fine halfbred and Oorriedale fleece brought . from about 30c to 34c, medium [ qualities making from 29c to 32c, and stronger qualities from 27c ’ to 30c. ; Commission's bids Because of the weakness of the market for finer wools the . Wool Commission made supplet mentary payments on some Merino and halfbred wools to i bring growers’ returns to floor - price levels. The percentage of , lots receiving supplements - varied from catalogue to catalogue., according to the proportion of fine wool in the entries. Although no official information was available, it was learned unofficially that up to about a third of the lots in some cata--5 logues earned supplements. In • the case of Merino wools these ■ payments sometimes amounted to ; 6c to 8c per lb, ranging down to ’ a cent or two or a fraction of a . cent on some halfbred wools. ’ About 500 bales, or less than : 4 per cent of the 14,500 bales in • the first four catalogues, were passed in at auction, and somewhere about half of this could I have gone to the Wool Commis- , sion which registered its floor ) price bid about 160 times over i this period. , The Wool Commission put an- } other- 6015 bales of its stock j wools up for sale. Comprising mainly coarser wools, these sold well, a very good clearance be ing achieved.

Some improvement As the day progressed the market tended to firm slightly for all classes of fleece, but compared with the corresponding ' sale a year ago and even the I most recent sale in Timafru in I August the market was well back, i Compared with October last

year Merino looked to be down by as much as 13c to 18c per lb, 1 halfbred and Corriedale by some 1 4c to 8c and crossbred by 2c to - 4c, and on the last Timaru sale 1 • in August the finer wools looked < i to have lost some 2c to 4c and ■ the crossbreds about 3c. < s The main buying competition < - came from Continental interests, I J i, with some support from local, ■ - j mills and Eastern Europe, and 1 J' limited support from Bradford'' - and Japan. ] Good order i s; The offering totalled 23,501 * 'bales and included 17,213 bales L I of new season’s wools, 6015 J ■ bales of stock wools and 273 r i I bales of scoured wool. The new: t . season’s offering was drawn • > i from South and Mid-Canterbury c ■ and North Otago and comprised * ! a wide range of qualities from strong crossbreds to fine j i Merinos, crossbreds providing 3 t the bulk of the selection. In j j the main the wools were well < , grown and sound. j :• In the small scoured catalogue 1 finer wools made to about 43ie \ and crossbred to about 362 c. 1 Leading prices The top price of the sale and 1 e top price in the Merino section f D was 451 c for two bales of super* < r fine Merino from H. P. de * f Broekert, of Curraghmore Sta- 1 s tion, in the Mackenzie Country. < The same vendor had five bales 1 .. of ewe wool at 402 c, five bales J of two-tooth at 38c, and four 1 ' bales of ewe ;it 37c. ' i The estate D. Urquhart and ' j Sons (Gray Hills) realised to f . 44c for 27 bales of fine Merino J , ewe, and they also sold 11 bales 1 » at 39Ac, 21 )ales at 37c and , j five bales of wether wool at J , 371 c. Hope Brothers from the I , neighbouring Grampians Station J sold six bales for 43c. Sales at : , 392 c were made by Irishman f , Creek Station (Lake Tekapo) for ■ 1 > 22 bales, and by J. Scott (Lake; 1 Tekapo) with 18 bales. Mount lS I Possession Run Company (Mount;. . Somers) sold 23 bales of fine!; r Merino at 391 c, and they also I c - had. five bales at 38Jc. ■ t Quarterbred sold to 351 c fori . four bales from Glen-Cary Sta-1 c : tion, Ltd (Hakataramea). • The best price for halfbred 1 j was 42c, paid for six bales from V I Hope Brothers, eight bales from W. H. Priest (Oamaru) and for F {three bales in the bins of the b NMA Company. For three bales C » of ewe wool, F. G. Morrison r (Mayfield) received 412 c and he • sold another eight bales at ' 392 c. Hope Brothers realised • 38c for eight bales, and the 1 1 same price was paid to H. I . Hunter-Weston (Lake Tekapo) t tifor 19 bales. y

D. G. Smith (Kurow) topped the Corriedale section with 10 bales of ewe wool selling at 43c. Another four of his bales sold for 37Jc. Out of their 800-baie entry, the New Zealand and Australian Land Company (Hakataramea), sold four bales of wether wool at 434 c, 24 bales lat 424 c, 24 at 42c, five bales at , 41c, and 22 bales at 40c. I In the three-quarterbred secI tion, Rangitata Island Partnerjship sold five bales of hogget at 302 c. Dalgety, New Zealand, Ltd, I received 331 c for eight bales of three-quarterbred hogget wool. ; D. R. Good (Lismore) sold four 1 bales of extra fine crossbred hogget at 34c. The Wool Com- | mission received 332 c for five ; bales of hogget wool, and 11 bales of hogget wool in the bins of Dalgety, New Zealand, Ltd, brought 331 c. South Riding, Ltd, (Fairlie) had five bales of hogget wool at 33c, and seven bales at 32c. Sales at 32c were made by G. J. Hogg (Albury), for eight bales of hogget wool, by R. B. Trotter (Fairlie) for four bales of hogget wool, and by Carter and Williams (Fairlie) for four bales of hogget. Second • shear crossbred brought to 321 c for three bales from D. Squire (Maungati). Blue Cliffs Station (St Andrews) also had 10 bales at 30c, and 38 bales at 26c. C. A. Schikker (Ashburton) received 261 c for five bales of second-shear twotooth wool, and 26c for six bales of ewe wool. Sales at 264 c were made by G. C. Irvine (Taiko), for 11 bales, by N. R. King (Fairlie) for 12 bales and by J. E. Mulvihill (Geraldine), for 22 bales. Perendale wool sold to 344 c for six bales of hogget wool from D. G. Cunningham (Albury'). A. H. Robinson (Geraldine) also had five bales of hogget wool at 302 c, and H. A. McPherson (Sutherlands) sold seven : bales of hogget wool at 30Jc. 1 Down cross brought to 29c for ! seven bales in the bins of Daljgety, New Zealand, Ltd. and ’Pyne, Gould, Guinness Ltd, re>celved the same money for five ; bales. I Details of catalogues in order of sale were:— Bales Dalgety New Zealand, Ltd. 5133 Wright Stephenson and Co., Ltd 3564 Pyne, Gould, Guinness Ltd 5857 NMA Company, Ltd 5449 Canterbury Farmers’ Cooperative Assn .. 3234 Total .. 23,228

There was also a scoured catalogue of 273 bales offered by Dalgety New Zealand, Ltd. on behalf of the South Canterbury Woolbrokers’ Association.