Some wool up 10 p.c. at Christchurch sale

Press, 14 April 1984, Page 6

Some wool up 10 p.c. at Christchurch sale

Price rises of up to 10 per cent for medium and strong Halfbred and Corriedale fleece wools were a feature of yesterday’s Christchurch wool sale. The medium and strong end of the finer wools have remained steady in price, and now lifted significantly, while the whole wool market eased back over the last month. The market indicator in recent weeks has been below 300 c after a period earlier in the selling season when it appeared likely to rise above the Government supplementary level of 320 c. Despite this easing, the bidding tone has continued to be good and the seasonal flush of lambs’ and second-shear wool has been selling steadily in sales throughout the country. Yesterday’s Christchurch sale was no exception. A large offering of 27,599 bales, including 27 per cent lambs’ wool and 21 per cent second-shear, was taken by the trade except for a few bales passed to the Wool Board and a small percentage retained by the brokers on which prices did not meet their market reserves. The number of passings does indicate that the brokers have good expectations that the market will firm in the remaining sales of this season. Extra fine and fine Halfbred prices were firm yesterday on prices at the Dunedin sale of April 5. Medium and strong Halfbred prices were 7.5 to 10 per cent dearer and skirtings were firm. Compared with the Napier sale on April 12, crossbred fleece was in sellers’ favour, cotts were 2.5 per cent cheaper, good style secondshear was par to 2.5 per cent dearer, poorer style was 2.5 to 5 per cent cheaper, lambs’ wool was par to 2.5 per cent cheaper, skirtings were firm and oddments were 2.5 to 7.5 per cent dearer. It appeared that the rises balanced the falls and the market indicator remained steady on the Napier level of 299 c. The adjusted weighted average sale price was 299.42 c a kilogram and based on this a Government supplementary payment of 6.9 per cent will apply to all wool sold at the sale and all wool sold privately from midnight, April 12 to midnight, April 16. A feature of recent sales, particularly of Dunedin and Invercargill wools, has been the better prices for any crossbred or second-shear wool with good colour. Strong yellowing and dirt has been dragging down the prices of the poorer styles in these descriptions. This continued to be the case, but to a lesser extent, with the West Coast and Nelson wools offered at the Christchurch sale.

This is largely a result of the wetter-than-average summer in many parts of the country and is difficult to avoid, although farmers may be compensated to some extent by good wool growth rates and fleece weights from the extra feed.

It has also given the wool buyers and the Wool Board the chance to re-emphasise the

value of growers preparing their clips well. A small offering of Canterbury and Marlborough Merino fleece wool enjoyed a good demand from New Zealand mills keen to buy for their winter processing requirements.

Lustre wools also sold well to local mills and the first bulk-tested Perendale wool was listed in the Christchurch catalogues, although there was not enough to indicate any market premium. Leading prices included:— Several lines of Merino wool from Mt Potts station (Mt Somers) topped the 600 c mark, including two bales of fine woolly hogget at 70Qc and three bales at 690 c. Other good sales from this station included 600 c for two bales of woolly hogget, 615 c (eight bales) and 542 c (seven bales), for fine Merino.

P. H. and C. E. Gullidge (Wairau Valley) received 640 c for one bale of extra fine Merino and 622 c for three bales of fine, Springs Farm (Blenheim) sold six bales of fine at 589 c, R. Mackenzie (Wairau Valley) sold one bale of extra fine at 558 c, and J. G. and D. A. Crawford (Oxford), received 545 c for 10 bales of fine and four bales of long Merino, and 537 c for another nine bales of long wool. Other good Merino sales included 533 c for three bales of fine from L. J. Holt (Wairau Valley), 521 c for four bales from G. Illingworth (Waihopai Valley), 511 c for three bales of strong two-tooth from J. H. C. Morris (Methven), and Erewhon station (Mt Somers) with 517 c (five bales), and 500 c (eight bales), for medium, and 512 c for three bales of fine.

One bale of super fine Merino woolly hogget from the bins of Pyne, Gould, Guinness Ltd, made 663 c, three bales of fine sold for 610 c, and one bale of super fine made 568 c. From Dalgety Crown’s bins, one bale of super fine sold for 601 c and three bales of fine sold for 575 c, and two lines of medium Merino from the bins of Wrightson NMA, Ltd, made 536 c (four bales), and 520 c (four bales). Seaward Valley Farm (Kaikoura) sold six bales of Merino at 512 c. Extra fine Halfbred shorn hogget wool from Woolomee Farm (Oxford) made 485 c for four bales and G. Burnett (Lees Valley) sold seven bales of fine at 466 c. J. and D. Crawford also sold six bales of extra fine Halfbred at 464 c and seven bales of fine at 437 c, Wilson Brothers (Inland Road) received 420 c for five bales of necks, and J. E. and G. A. Inch (Oxford) were paid 437 c for five bales of medium.

Six bales of fine Halfbred woolly hogget from Wrightson’s bins made 455 c and four bales of medium shorn hogget from Dalgety’s sold for 436 c. A. A. D. and E. M. Barker (Waiau) sold four bales of fine shorn hogget at 476 c. Several vendors topped the 100 c mark for Corriedale wool. M. F. Bell (Dunsandel) received 461 c and 442 c for four bales each of fine and medium shorn hogget, R. F. White (Hororata) sold seven bales of woolly hogget at 456 c, and two

vendors received 424 c — Ravelston Properties (Darfield) for four bales of extra fine, and W. F. Bell (Darfield) for 10 bales of fine.

H. L. Pickering (Greta Valley) sold five bales of fine Corriedale at 412 c, Lochee Farm (Cust) four bales of woolly hogget at 405 c and four bales of necks at 404 c, G. and W. Chisnail (Hawarden), five bales of fine at 391 c, and D. Philpott (Rangiora) was paid 396 c for four bales of fine.

Six bales of strong lustre crossbred from Wrightson’s bins sold for 438 c. Rowleyvale Farm (Waipara) sold nine bales of crossbred at 379 c and 26 bales of shorn hogget from the Lands and Survey Department’s Wharekauri station on the Chatham Islands made 360 c. Another vendor from the Chathams, A. Daymond, received 379 c for 11 bales of fine crossbred shorn hogget and 377 c for 15 bales of crossbred. Tag Partnership (Culverden) sold 10 bales of medium at 366 c and 13 bales at 370 c, and four bales of extra strong from Pyne’s bins made 391 c. Forty-five bales of threequarterbred lambs’ wool from Dalgety’s bins sold for 375 c, T. C. Calcott (Darfield) sold five bales of .halfbred lambs’ wool at 370 c, and I. M Ferguson (Hawarden) received 369 c for nine bales of Corriedale lambs’ wool. Other sales of fine lambs wool included 19 bales of Corriedale from H. L. Pickering at 358 c, eight bales of halfbred from Estate J. S. Allan (Culverden) at 359 c, J. Stewart (Rangiora) six bales of Halfbred at 357 c, and P. and J. Roberts (Waikari), eight bales of Corriedale at 355 c. One bale of Lincoln woo] from Mrs A. P. Bennett (Swannanoa) easily topped the lambs’ wool section with a price of 461 c. A combined lot of 14 bales of Perendale from Dalgety’s made 370 c, and from Wrightson’s a combined lot of 15 bales of fine crossbred made 384 c. Roylan Farms (Oxford) received 360 c for seven bales of Perendale, and the same price was paid for 11 bales from the Lands and Survey Department’s Caroline property at Westport. Two vendors received 358 c for lambs’ wool — B. and R. Johnston (Reefton) for nine bales of Perendale, and E. E. Spencer (Parnassus) for 24 bales of Romney. N. M. Watson (Sheffield) sold 12 bales of fine crossbred at 359 c, and V. M. Tuanui (Chatham Islands), received 357 c for four bales of Romney. A price of 379 c was paid for two lots of crossbred lambs' wool, 12 bales of fine from J. D. Ballantyne (Montalto), and 10 bales from C. S. Stringer and Son (Hororata). Three vendors received 370 c — Barker Brothers (Chatham Islands), for 20 bales of fine crossbred, E. and A. Karst (Sheffield) for eight bales of extra fine crossbred, and W. Burrows and Son (Culverden), for 10 bales of extra fine Coopworth. P. H. Letham and Sons (Ashburton) sold 12 bales of fine crossbred lambs’ wool at 367 c. Twenty-eight bales of Coop-

worth from M. and S. Fowker (Ashburton) made 346 c, H. J. Macartney (Tai Tapu) sold six bales of woolly hogget at 340 c, and 12 bales of shorn hogget in a combined lot from Wrighton’s made 342 c. A price of 346 c was paid for 19 bales of Borderdale woolly hogget sold by M. R. Dolan (Rakaia). Polwarth wool from I. R. Hamilton (Omihi) made 400 c for five bales and L. Moore (Wairau Valley) received 420 c for four bales of shorn hogget. Five bales of Perendale shorn hogget from M. A. and D. L. Blanchet (Nelson) sold at 321 c, D. S. and J. A. Hayward (Banks Peninsula) received 347 c for four bales of twotooth, F. R. and R. M. Gallagher (Banks Peninsula) 330 c for 10 bales of shorn hogget, and J. T. R. Chambers (Waiau) was paid 333 c for 15 bales of Perendale. Prices of second-shear woo) included 456 c for six bales of English and Border-Leicester from Wrighton’s bins; 387 c for nine bales of crossbred (41.2 microns) from R. M. Jessop (Methven); 360 c for 12 bales of Coopworth from Eskvale Estate (Amberley); the same price for four bales of Romney two-tooths from Haines Family Trust (Leeston); and 359 c for 10 bales of Romney from W. R. George and Son (Ashburton). Estate D. J. Muckle (Methven) sold eight bales of Coopworth second-shear at 361 c, 0. J. Jenkins (Port Levy) received 360 c for four bales of crossbred second-shear, and Wairiri Partnership (Hororata) sold 18 bales of Coopworth at 353 c. The order of sale was Wrightson NMA, Ltd, 887 lots, 11,408 bales; Dalgety Crown, Ltd, 781 lots, 8833 bales; Pyne, Gould, Guinness Ltd, 589 lots, 7342 bales. Total, 2257 lots, 27,583 bales.