PRICES hit a magical $286 at the Naracoorte blue ribbon first-cross ewe sale on Thursday last week as confidence in the lamb market outweighed seasonal concerns.
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Despite many parts of the South East being on track for their lowest ever rainfall, buyer minds were firmly fixed on the strong outlook for lamb prices.
Many commented it was the best line-up of 1.5-year-olds they had seen at the yards, buoyed by the mild winter.
In a vote of confidence in the industry, the 24,673 1.5yo and breeding ewes grossed $5.28 million and averaged $214.
This result was second only to the 2011 record-breaking sale, when ewes topped at $310.
Top-end 1.5yo ewes made $240 to $270 and the majority of the noted lines of ewes made $215-$240 in the first half of the sale - $20-$30 more than expectations.
However it came down to the luck of the selling agent draw for individual vendors, with noted lines of ewes late in the sale making $190-$200 as demand was exhausted.
The James family, Coolawang Pastoral Company, Mundulla, sold the $286 sale toppers in their outstanding draft of June-July 2014-drops. The ewes were by their Border Leicester sires and out of 4-6yo from their self-replacing Merino flock.
For the third consecutive year their 149 tops were bought by Tim Widdison, Melecca Farms, Tarpeena, through O'Connor & Graney, Mount Gambier.
Mr Widdison was stretched further than 2014, when he bought the tops at $256. He paid $222 for them in 2013.
"This year we didn't get brilliant percentages being a tighter year and we ended up with a lot of singles, but last year we got 130 per cent out of maiden ewes which just shows they are beautiful sheep," he said.
"I wasn't fixed on buying these before the sale but after looking about there was nothing else as good."
Mr Widdison also bought a second pen of 154 from Coolawang for $280. Coolawang averaged $277 for their 345 ewes.
"Considering the year is what it is, we would have been satisfied with what we got last year - $256 - but we have surpassed that by $30," Trevor James said.
The $282 second-highest price was hit twice by two other first-cross ewe specialists - Peter Ireland, Deepwater Trust, Lochaber, and then the Lambert family, Bimbimbie Props, Penola.
Deepwater Trust sold their 201 1.5yo to Elders Millicent, and another 198 for $268 to Pinkerton Palm Hamlyn & Steen.
Bimbimbie Props averaged $275 for 469 ewes - the entire drop from their Lucindale property.
Their $282 ewes were bought by Trevor Little, Kongorong.
Scullions Farming, Apsley and Edenhope, Vic, were the sale's largest vendor, selling 2300 ewes for a $258 average.
These ewes had been bought as lambs from noted breeders such as Nampara, Clover Ridge, Marmon Hill and Cooranga last year and grown out.
Breeding ewes topped at $164 for 140 3.5yo from Cooee Waters, Kybybolite. They sold to Landmark Strathalbyn.
The Lower SE and western Vic were particularly strong, but ewes also sold to the Fleurieu and Yorke Peninsula.
PPHS director Robin Steen described it as a "cracking sale" and $20 up on last year.
Their 6500 1.5yo averaged $248, which he attributed to the strong support by their three companies - PPHS, Spence Dix & Co and Chay and Merrett - and other private agents in the SE, which took 74 per cent of their ewes.
"Had the season gone with us, I believe the top-end ewes would have been $300 but as the season went on and went backwards we readjusted our thinking to similar to last year," he said.
"But the sale has ended up being better than last year."
Catherine Miller
Stock Journal's livestock editor and South East correspondent.
Stock Journal's livestock editor and South East correspondent.
