Merino young ewes made to a sale high, $232 a head, in the Grand Final eve Swan Hill, September, store sheep sale on Friday.
Buyers from across northern and western Victoria bid freely for replacement lines, with all classes of ewes, wethers and fattening type lambs crossbred well supported throughout the 30,000-head penning.
Breeders’ lots of 2016-drop young ewes saw a broad spread of values achieved according to size and quality.
Better known and grown lines pulled prices between $190 and $232 a head while smaller framed and lesser conditioned lots mostly made $145 to $175.
Older 2013- and 2012-drop saw the better end of sale sold in the $120-$142 a head price bracket while yards of 2011-drop, six year-olds, mostly made $87-$111 and travelled without the support of meat processors.
However with another solid grain harvest season due to unfold, strongest interest was displayed for the shorter term Merino wether lambs that offer both wool and meat profit opportunities.
Best sales of unshorn wether lambs made $100 to $123 a head while shorn lines topped $101. However perhaps the highlight of the sale was the intensity applied to secondary drafts that mostly $75 to $100 a head and were considered $10-$15 improved on recent rates.