Cashmore Oaklea ewes in strong demand by future breeders

Don Finnerty, D & M Finnerty, Macarthur, sold the top-priced lot of Nudie ewes for $506 during the Cashmore Oaklea Performance Maternals ewe and lamb sale.

Almost 13,000 maternal and Nudie sheep went under the hammer during the AuctionsPlus sale on Thursday from 21 vendors predominately across Victoria and SA.

Cashmore Oaklea stud manager Catherine Lyon said the sale had run for more than a decade.

"We have buyers who are starting from scratch and developing their flock, for instance they may have moved over from terminals to composites," she said.

"Prior to 10 years ago, people were selling their ewes separately but we thought we could do it collaboratively because we have a lot of breeders that utilise the Cashmore Oaklea bloodline and were wanting to sell their surplus ewes and ewe lambs into the market."

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The breeding female sale follows the stud's Maternal, Nudie and Dorset online ram sale last month.

The top-priced Nudie ewes, Lot 42 which included 110 1.5-year-olds, were sold by Mr Finnerty.

As a traditional beef cattle producer, Mr Finnerty said his experience with sheep started about 13 years ago.

"I lease a lot of blocks and some of them are only appropriate for sheep," he said.

"We started off buying a mob of Dorper sheep from the north, but they weren't suited and didn't stand up.

"Twelve years ago we started buying Cashmore Park Nudie rams and then we've only bought Nudie rams since."

Last year the western district farmer sold the top-priced lot in the same sale, with 225 Nudies knocked down for $502 during the online sale.

"The Nudies themselves have gotten better since we first bought them with more attention on foot structure and worm resistance which are the things that really debilitate southern sheep," Mr Finnerty said.

"We sell the small chunk of Nudie ewes we get each year and they represent the ewe lambs from the preceding that were not up to joining weight.

"For the last five years, I've kept that cohort on farm and carried them through for the sale."

Tasmanian-based livestock agent Ian Richards, Richards Livestock, Launceston, Tas, bought the top-priced Nudie lot on behalf of a mixed-farming client in northern Tasmania.

"The straight Nudies are bloody hard to get at the moment and my client was very interested in the purebred sheep," Mr Richards said.

In the composite section of the sale, Cashmore Park, Cashmore, sold the top-priced lot of 160 ewes for $232, equal with the The Riffkin family, Morgiana, who sold 110 ewes for the same price.