WETHERS REACH £5 9s A HEAD AT FEILDING

Wanganui Chronicle, 2 September 1950, Page 5

WETHERS REACH £5 9s A HEAD AT FEILDING

New Record Price For Dominion

PALMERSTON NORTH, Last Night <PA)—That records are made to be broken was eloquently demonstrated at the Feilding stock sale when wether mutton soared to the record price of £5 9s Id a head. This figure exceeds all recent quotations from the fat stock markets of New Zealand and indicates the substantial influence the current high values for wool are having on trading in sheep. Good quality woolly wethers had no difficulty in selling at 90s and over and the first pens to reach the £5 mark were two each containing 30 sheep. There was excited interest at this moment and the auctioneer, Mr. Harold Edwards, momentarily lost control of the situation to translate a bid of 100 s into lOOgns., to the intense amusement of the crowd. There was no advance on his call of "100

guineas’’ and the sheep went to Mr. Norman Malcolmson, a retail butcher, of Feilding. Later, sheep on account of Mr. O. C. Ellerm, of Sanson, came under the hammer. These were beautifully woolled wethers which sold for the record price of £5 9s Id, and another pen of 40 was traded at £5 5s Id.

Hogget mutton realised a new high price with a sale of 13 well-woclloi sheep at. 85s lOd, while the best old ewes, good meaty and well-woolled types, made also a new record by .selling at 75s Id. These quotations for the best mutton on offer made history for the Feilding sale. A The store sheep mostly lacked quality yet sold well in line with late quotations. The first offering of ewes with lambs at foot found a buyer at 35s 9d all counted.

Station cattle experienced a buoyant tone and forward condition threeyear steers were traded at £22 10s. Run cows made to £l5 15s, a price suggestive of a real demand for good breeding stock.