A rare store sheep sale of 6850 head at Wycheproof, Friday, was the first opportunity for two months that dedicated sheep traders have had to eye-ball prospective purchases.
And while not an overly large gallery attended a number of long distance travelers from the south and west of the state where rain has fallen exerted an influence over the market.
Generally speaking the joined and lambed crossbred ewe section of the penning saw most trucked south to the Hamilton region while the Merino ewe portion mostly went to Horsham and beyond.
In the unjoined ewe and wether sections centre state areas had greatest influence under the watchful eye of underpinning processor orders.
With only a modest yarding assembled quality did vary which allowed for the social aspects of saleyard markets to prevail where people could chat about buying opportunities.
One of the topics embraced was the infrequency of saleyard store sheep markets and the increased and heavy reliance on internet sales as a trading avenue.
As one operative said you really do have to know your assessors and truth their reputation and capabilities to avoid the likelihood of a bad purchase experience.
He said while the system had improved and there were more checks and balance in places to negate mis-description there is nothing more reassuring as a buyer than to eye-ball potential opportunities rather than relying on the words and pictures of others.
Even this week buying opportunity for sheep on the net were illusive. As the Auctions Plus report reveals Merino ewe listings fell sharply to 6600 head, down 3500 on last week.
A bump in the offering of wethers and wether lambs saw 10,500 offered and coupled with a clearance of 76%.
Average price for wether lambs stays consistent at $84, the same as last week. Prices ranged from $63.50 to $109.
Older Merino wethers were in lesser supply but sold well to average $93. Prices ranged from $70.50 to $119.50,
In the six wether pens offered at Wycheproof, where all were sold either by auction or negotiation (ear-tag dispute) prices varied from $58 to $166 a head which makes value difficult to compare.
On my estimation the lead priced pen at Wycheproof sold at $166 a head, offered 21-22kg of carcase weight with a $25-$30 (40-70mm) early November-shorn skin as rebate.
Tapping these figures out on a calculator and using the upper end of the numbers, these wethers returned a value 600-620c/kg if purchased for slaughter.
However for the successful woolgrower-buyer a shearing at 12 months could easily return $85-$100 of fleece for a net off-shears purchase of $65-$70 a head.
