My What’s In Store column this week has been inspired by several large six-figure trades witnessed in recent sheep markets, and a brief but informative visit to the Conargo property of Boonoke, owned and operated by Australian Food and Agriculture (AFA).
It has also been inspired by a quick witted by but sobering comment that a single sheep is now valued greater than one tonne of cereal grain.
Normally the reason for a Stock & Land visit to historic Boonoke would entail a highly prompted display or sale of rams from its ironic stud Merino flock but on this occasion it involved the release for sale of 6500 of its commercially-bred wether weaners from its 2016-drop that hold their lambs teeth.
To set the scene a portion of these AFA wether weaners -720 head in total, ex Boonoke sister station, Zara also at Conargo, tested the market at Bendigo saleyards on Monday making to $148 a head and averaging $140, with all but small tail-end pen being secured for processing.
Geoff McCallum, Elders, Deniliquin, who is overseeing the preparation of its year’s AFA wether weaner clearance, described the Zara-bred//Bendigo-sold consignment as in good slaughter condition- mainly score two and weighing roughly 20.5kg (without being precise).
Being February shorn, this would place a slaughter value of these Wanganella-blood youngsters in the 650-660c/kg price bracket after consideration of an estimated $4.00 in pelt value.
Diverging for just a moment, this price lines up rather neatly with the top end of this year’s Thomas Foods spring forward contract schedules, released Monday, for August/September delivered lambs to its Tamworth, NSW and Murray Bridge and Lobethal, processing plants in South Australia.
These are advertised in this week’s Stock & Land and detail a range of prices spanning, from $5.40/kg for Merino old lambs up to $6.80/kg for Crossbred suckers for the upcoming end of winter-early spring supply period.
Back on Boonoke, and Geoff McCallum says the remaining 5,000 AFA wether weaners have been listed for sale on Auctions Plus next Tuesday, June 13th. These are advertised this week and comprise 2,600 Wanganella-blood, Boonoke-bred lambs, and 2,000 Wanganella/Poll Boonoke-blood, Barratta-bred lambs, both being May/June-drop and April shearing.
Mr McCallum has advised the lead-draft of 1000 of the Boonoke-bred lambs have weighed 45.2kg average, and the 2nd line of 1470 head, an average of 40.9kg, with each to be split and offered in two halves to suit transport loads.
A further 500 December-shorn wethers, ex Burrabogie Station at Hay, which were initially listed for sale have since been withdrawn, to be shorn and sold in the spring as fully grown hoggets.
AFA general manager Justin Campbell says the past couple of years have been good for sheep breeding and grazing in the Riverina.
He said since the May break in the season last year AFA has increased its commercial flock numbers following extensive hand-feeding during the previous tougher years.
Now running about 75,000 commercial ewes plus the studs on the various AFA properties, Mr Campbell said the commitment to hand-feed during the dry times had allowed the operation to carry the majority of its breeding stock. And consequently it has provided a solid foundation to naturally increase its numbers now the weather has improved.
To do this sound ewes from the six and seven year-old groups, normally sold, were held while a lesser percent (12-15%) of younger weaner ewes were classed out, which he said would have been normal practice for most sheep breeding operations through the greater Riverina area.
Mr Campbell said that in recent years AFA has contracted about 40 per cent of its terminal bred lambs majority of which were sourced from its Burrabogie operation, south of Hay. Terminally bred lambs he said comprising about 30 percent of the AFA total ewe joining while 70 percent including the stud flock account for the ewes joined to Merino rams.
Analyzing the profitability of commercially-bred Merino wether lambs Mr Campbell said the AFA Barratta-bred, which were shorn in April at 9-10 months, cut 4.7kg of 18 micron wool valued then at approximately 1200c/kg or about $56/head.
Working off this sum and the result of Zara-bred lambs sold in Bendigo on Monday, which spent the past six weeks off-shears on quality irrigated pastures then the gross 12 month return for the wether weaners Mr Campbell said has fallen marginally short of $200/head without consideration of the shearing returns achieved from its breeding ewe mother.
With the Riverina on the cusp of another lambing season, Mr Campbell said pregnancy scanning results this year has returned only slightly above normal at around the 90-92 percent. He said ewes joined off-shears at the end of spring, as usual, have returned the highest results while February-shorn flocks ranked a percent point or two lower.
