The Nutrien Livestock Maternal Ewe Sale held on AuctionsPlus this week proved to be successful, with a continued interest in shedding breeds, resulting in prices reaching a high of $218 on two occasions, for one-year-old UltraWhite ewes.
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Thirty seven buyers and onlookers were logged in to the AuctionsPlus platform, while four were active, eager to secure quality ewes and ewe lambs in the online sale which featured 1238 head (865 ewe lambs and 373 ewes) that were offered in seven lines.
The sale was steady and concluded with six of the seven lines sold, which meant a total of 1075 ewes and ewe lambs sold for an average of $138, which was slightly down on Nutrien Livestock's October Online Maternal Ewe Sale average of $252.
Ewe lamb numbers dominated the yarding which resulted in 702 ewe lambs selling during the sale, which was further improved to a 100 per cent clearance post sale with the remaining pen of 163 ewe lambs finding a home and all 373 ewes selling during the sale too.
The $218 top price was achieved twice, for ewe lines offered by the Bradford family, Hillcroft Farms UltraWhite stud, Popanyinning, bought by a Mt Lawley account.
The first line was made up of 186, 12-13-month-old ewes that had an average bodyweight of 66.2 kilograms and the second line comprised 187 one-year-old ewes weighing an average of 67.7kg.
The $170 top price in the ewe lamb offering was also achieved twice, bought by Nutrien Livestock Breeding representative Roy Addis.
The two lines were again offered by Hillcroft Farms UltraWhite stud, and the first line to achieve the $170 high was 142, mid-March to mid-April ewe lambs averaging 60.5kg, followed by another 142-head line that also dropped in mid-March to mid-April and averaged 59.5kg.
A line of ewe lambs from GS & B Martin, Wickepin, were picked up for $120 by a Williams buyer who was eager to secure the 218 Kojak ewe lambs that dropped from early March to late April, and weighed an average of 49.4kg.
The other line of UltraWhite ewes lambs that sold for $70 during the online sale were offered by Wickepin-based TKW Leeson and purchased by a Wandering account.
The pen of 200 ewe lambs were from a late May to early July-drop and averaged 42.2kg.
The remaining line of ewe lambs that sold after the sale was also from TKW Leeson, this time selling to the same Wandering account for a pen of 163 UltraWhite-Dorper cross ewe lambs that dropped from late May to early July and weighed an average of 47.4kg.
WHAT THE AGENT SAID
Nutrien Livestock Breeding representative Roy Addis said while it was only a small offering it still achieved an outstanding result for the shedding sheep industry.
"The quality of the offering was excellent, which saw the ewes top at $218 and ewe lambs achieved a high of $170," Mr Addis said.
He said there was a smaller offering this month due to how many numbers were nominated and sold in the October maternal sale.
"The amount of sheep that were offered in the November sale meant there was a smaller yarding in this month's sale," Mr Addis said.
"This is also due to season conditions, but nonetheless achieved an outstanding result for our December online Maternal Ewe Sale."
