DRY COUNTRYSIDE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22584, 12 March 1948, Page 6

DRY COUNTRYSIDE

STORTFORD MARKET LITTLE CONFIDENCE Considering the continued hot vwuffeer and the dryness of the countralgde, the market for store sheep held upwbetter than was generally anticipated at Stortford Lodge on Wednesday. For all that, there was little confidence about the bidding from the small attendance which followed the selling. Most of the pens contained breeding ewes, including the first offerings of sheep running with rams. For these the market was a little erratic, with poorer quality lines selling relatively better man better type sheep. Values all round, however, were shillings below the level of the recent fairs and they also showed an easing on last week's sale. There were consignments from Fcilding, Gisborne and Wairoa. Good quality five-year ewes with sound mouths made 24s Id to 255; hard condition lots, 22s 8d to 23s 9d; fouryear, 24s to 24s lOd; six-year, 21s lOd; mixed aged, 26s 6d; two-tooths, 30s. Store ewes in hard condition brought 14s 7d. The lambs yarded were mainly culls which offered little real quality. Good woolly wether lambs realised 22s 7d; small shorn wether lambs. 18s 2d to 19s 6d; small ewe lambs, 22s to 245; good four-tooth and six-tooth wethers, 35s lOd. Lamb and other classes of mutton were firm. Heavy wethers made 41s lOd to 42s 7d; prime, 40s Id; lighter, 32s 4d to 37s 4d; heavy ewes, 30s 7d to 32s Id; medium, to 27s 7d; inferior, 21s 7d to 255; young ewes, 32s lOd to 37s 4d; heavy lambs, 40s 4d; medium, 35s 4d to 36s Id; light, to 25s 7d. • Business was done at £l3 5s for a small pen of good three and a half-year steers; two and a half-year steers, £lO 5s to £ll 17s; 66 well grown two and a half-year A.A. steers in good order for anyone with grazing to farm them set the market off at £ll 10s. Two pens of A.A. cattle of the same age came forward. A smaller-grown cut of 30. being good coated cattle in fresh order, realised £lO 18s, and for bigger beasts numbering 19 in good order the price was £ll 17s. The Jersey heifers sold at £ll to £lO for quality animals. Difficulty in getting cattle killed in the works was again reflected in the slackness of the beer market. Values were again easier and in some instances business was done at a good margin below the export schedule. This was well illustrated in the case of 8001 b. heifers which sold at £l6 18s 6d; other lines were passed in. Prime ox \yas traded at £lB to £l9 8s 6d; medium, £l6 13s 6d to £l7 8s 6d; heavy heifers, £ls 16s to £l6 18s 6d; medium, £ll 18s 6d to £l3 6s; better quality cows, £ll 18s 6d to £l2 18s 6d; vealers, £2 15s to £4 7s 6d.