Southern Rural Life stopped at the Lorneville yards, near Invercargill, last Tuesday [June 18], to have a look at the yards.
Woodlands farmer Rodney Botting said this season's prices for store and works lambs continued to be some of the highest he had seen.
He had farmed for more than 30 years.
This was the third season straight he had seen good prices in Southland, he said.
PGG Wrightson auctioneer Mike Broomhall said the prime top lambs at the sale fetched between $153 and $169 each, while the medium lambs were $139 to $149 per head.
Prime ewes fetched between $160 to $200 and the medium ewes were between $130 to $151 and the lighter ones were about $80 to $118.
''There are good prices at the moment.
''We are going into winter and people have held on to them for this long, so they have to get good money for them.
''They have been the best prices for two to three years, although it can fluctuate.''
Auctioneer and saleyards director Terry Cairns said he recalled the day years ago when there were sheep in the bedroom of the saleyard's manager's house, which was on site.
''They were shifting some sheep nearby and their gate and door was open, so another mob of sheep rocked in and made a huge mess, as you could imagine.''
He was and still is a saleyards director and had to get in the commercial cleaners and flowers for the manager's wife.
PGG Wrightson Lorneville cattle representative Andy Yule said the R2 Friesian steers were 400kg average weight and sold for between $2.10 to $2.20kg liveweight.
The R2 380kg average beef cross steers made $2.45kg on average.
The R2 beef cross heifers were between 380kg to 420kg liveweight and sold for $2.35/kg average.
The Friesian bulls on sale were 180kg to 210kg and sold for $2.00 to $2.10/kg.
