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Among the buyers at the Hawarden Ewe Fair were older farmers feeling nostalgic about fairs of the past.
John Sidey, of Waikari, has been coming to the local ewe fair since he was a boy, while Waipara farmer Keith Berry’s association with the Hawarden event dates back 40 years.
Mr Sidey said back in the day there were ewe fairs at Culverden and Amberley, while the Hawarden fair regularly attracted around 20,000 ewes for a single-day sale.
‘‘It was all a bit different. In the early days they used to have the bar which they had a licence for,’’ he said.
‘‘The licence expired half an hour after the last sale, but the hard cases would advertise to auction a dog to keep the bar running until 10pm.
‘‘The other big change is the bulk of the sheep were driven here by the farmers.’’
The Hawarden Ewe Fair used to feature predominantly Corriedale ewes, with keen competition between local families such as the Forresters, McFaddens, Wrights, Carrs, Matthews and Blakeleys.
Mr Berry said buyers would come from ‘‘near and far to buy quality sheep’’.
‘‘Many of the sheep went to Mid Canterbury, where they were put to Border Leicester rams, and much of that land probably has black and whites [dairy cows] running around on it now.’’
Mr Sidey’s family members are well-known Corriedale sheep breeders with the Strathblane stud, which is now being run by his son Jim.
Being a stud breeder, he rarely sold ewes at the fair, and came mainly for the social side and to keep an eye on what was happening in the local sheep industry, Mr Sidey said.
‘‘But there would have been a lot of Sidey blood in the sheep at the sales,’’ Mr Berry added.
Mr Berry first moved into the area as a school teacher at Hawarden in 1978, before going farming on his own account 10 years later.
-By David Hill
