The annual Maniototo Last Muster Lamb Sale near Ranfurly is the last big lamb sale in the South Island for the season.
Before bidding on more than 17,000 forward and store lambs started at Waipiata Saleyards, Shawn McAvinue asked potential buyers what enticed them to the sale, what they were hoping to buy and how they would use those lambs in their system?
Brooke Watson, of Ranfurly ... "It’s a good sale. It’s a great area for stock — stock move well out of here. We are looking to buy some halfbreds to keep them through the winter to shear and then kill in the spring."
Chris Mears, of Ashburton ... "The numbers. I’ve bought here for a fair few years. I’m looking at the blackface halfbreds — I’ve got a few people to buy for. They’ll get carried right the way through to September-October and killed."
Andrew Thompson, of Wedderburn ... "I’m looking for a few halfbred ewe lambs, a smaller line to top up our ewe lambs, two or three hundred, to use as replacements to breed from."
Chris Tapp, of Hawarden ... "We buy in our ewe lambs every year so we go around most sales to find replacements and you usually get good, reliable ones here. We’re looking to buy two or three hundred today but we’ll see how we go."
Phillip Paul, of Middlemarch ...‘‘There’s a lot of finer wool sheep here and I’ll try and get some smaller lambs. I’ll winter them, shear them and see what the spring market is. The wool is probably 24 to 25 micron, so there’s quite a good market in the wool and hopefully kill them at a reasonable weight in the spring.
"I normally winter cows but that’s all gone belly up, everybody has pulled out. People can’t get cows because farmers can’t afford to graze them out - they reckon they’re going to graze them at home. People had fodder beet in but can’t get cows, it’s quite untidy. Trying to buy dry cows to winter has gone nuts, so this is the other option.’’
Andrew Hart, of Methven... ‘‘The large numbers and the quality of the stock. I’ve come down here the last 10 years, probably more, I’m hoping to buy a few halfbreds and maybe some crossbred - males - they’ll go back on grass and then green feed crops in the winter and then go in ryegrass paddocks in spring.’’
