A cold day greeted the draft of 1000 Merino wether lambs consigned by WM & EA Holcombe, Toobeah near Goondiwindi, Qld, at Bendigo Livestock Exchange.
The draft sold to a top of $168 for March shorn wethers while a big draft of seconds, same shearing, sold for $130 – both to processors.
The tops of the June shorn portion of the offering went for $113 to a processor while a local restocker paid up to $110 for the remainder of the wethers.
The result was a pleasing one for the Holcombes as Elders agent, Jonathan Sutherland rang through the results.
It is the second year that the Holcombe sheep have been trucked 1300 kilometres from near Goondiwindi in Queensland, to be sold at the Bendigo market.
Mr Sutherland said the Holcombe’s 2017 drop wether lambs were ripe for restockers, fatteners or for slaughter.
He said the wethers were well bred and from big framed and straight bodied sheep.
The consignment comprised 600 September and 400 June shorn lambs by Leahcim rams.
Mr Sutherland said it made sense to bring the sheep to a market where there were more buyers and nearer to where the processors were based.
Breeder Billy Holcombe said the sheep were out of their Leahcim blood ewe flock of around 4000 ewes.
He said he hoped that the wethers went to restockers to finish.
He had bought and sold sheep in Bendigo on other occasions and felt the centre offered access to a larger buying pool.
The Holcombes have been on Leahcim rams for 10 years “and the ewes are more fertile, bigger carcases and cut lots of 19 micron wool”, he said.