First Canterbury sale soon

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32678, 6 August 1971, Page 13

First Canterbury sale soon

The first wool sale of the new season in the province will be held at Timaru on Monday, August 16. This will also have the distinction of being the first sale to be held in Canterbury with wool being offered in kilograms instead of pounds. The accompanying photograph is of a weighing machine in the store of Dalgety New Zealand, Ltd, in Christchurch with the face marked in kilograms. Mr I. D. Ayres, wool manager for Pyne, Gould,

Guinness Ltd, in Timaru, said on Wednesday that provided the weather remained fine next week it was expected that the offering would be between about 10,000 and 12,000 bales. In the last four or five days he said that the rate of intake into stores had increased and by Wednesday he said that they must be getting up towards 8000 bales. Because of the dry conditions early last summer.

Mr Ayres said that his impression of the wool they had seen was that prelamb shorn wools were just a little shorter in length than they would have been for the corresponding ' sale last year. Some of the later shorn wools were also showing a slight yellowing due to recent rains. • Fleece wools would predominate in the offering, he said, and these would be mainly Romney or crossbred.

Of crutchings, he said there was an odd line reasonably well picked, but they were mainly unpicked. At this sale and at the Christchurch sale on August 30 all those connected with wool sales will have to become used to a new range of values with wool being offered in kilograms. On a kilogram basis fine crossbred wools sold at the first Timaru sale last year made from 64c to 73c, medium crossbreds 59.5 c to 64c and stronger crossbreds 57.5 c to 61.5 c per kilo.