STORE LAMBS A FEATURE AT FEILDING STOCK SALE

Wanganui Chronicle, 17 January 1948, Page 3

STORE LAMBS A FEATURE AT FEILDING STOCK SALE

(P.A.) Palmerston N., Jan. 16 Store lambs were a feature of the livestock sale at. Feilding when there was an offering of approximately 15,000 head, representing some of the best quality lambs ever yarded. There was a large attendance of the public and competition was very firm throughout. With one or two exceptions everything offered sold under the hammer. The best price for shorn wether lambs was 28s 7d, while tops of Down cross sorts made 31s 9d. Only one pen of breeding ewes was offered, this being a mixed age pen which made 30s. Very few ewe lambs were available and the top price for these was 28s 6d. Fat sheep remained firm, with a small entry, and there was little in the way of station or dairy cattle. Fat sheep: Wether mutton including some nice 2ths predominated in a small offering of fat sheep which experienced a good sale at late rates. Realisations covering just over 300 head were: Wethers 37s 4d to 38s lOd; 2th. woolly wether, 43s Id to 49s 4d; Down cross 2ths, 24s lOd to 35s lOd; ewes, 22s lOd to 32s 7d. Store Lambs: Buyers agreed that they have to go far afield to find a yarding of store lambs to equal the yarding offered. Undoubtedly the offering was outstanding, lambs being in wonderful order and many lines were from the hills ready for topping off. One or two prices at the first sale of the New Year were on the high side, and it would be hardly fair to take those prices as a basis for comparison of today’s realisations, as they were a bit above what they should be on a fat lamb basis. The market was quite flrm; as the disposal of the first pen of 120 forward shorn Down cross lambs at 26s 9d would clearly indicate. The first pen of shorn white face wether lambs to come under the hammer made 245, and these followed with a sale at 25s 6d. Then a pen at 25s 9d. Practically every pen of the large offering was quitted and the arrival of welcome rain early in the afternoon caused the market to strengthen somewhat. The highest prices were 28s 7d for 260 white face wether lambs, and 31s 9d for 30 Down cross.

Fat Cattle: The principal entry in the fat cattle pens was a truck of heavy bullocks which did not interest local butchers, and were passed in. The only other entries comprised an ex-dairy cow and heifer, which sold at £lO 2s 6d and £9 respectively. Station cattle :There were only two pens of station cattle yarded, 13 for-ward-condition A.A. bullocks and 21 A.A. heifers. The bullocks were passed in and the heifers sold at £7 4s. Store cattle: No difficulty was experienced in quitting a fair yarding of boner cows, the market being very firm. Prices, £2 17s to £9 15s, empty heifers £7 12s 6d to £B.