Lambs and ewes are fetching "unbelievable" prices, a Hindon farmer says.
The lowest price fetched for the final draft of lambs at an on-farm sale at Silverpeaks Station earlier this month matched the highest price for the best cut of lambs at the same auction a year earlier.
"It’s unreal, isn’t it?" Silverpeaks Station owner Mike Cowie said.
"It is actually unbelievable."
A pen of more than 180 Sufftex-cross mixed-sex lambs fetched a top price of $221 each at the Hindon farm, about 20km north of Outram.
The top draft of the same lambs fetched $150 at the same sale last year.
Nearly 2200 lambs were offered at the auction this year and all sold.
The next four drafts of the same breed of mixed-sex lambs sold for $189, $166, $157 and $150 respectively.
A pen of ewes sold for more than $240 each.
Mr Cowie was floating making his next on-farm sheep auction in March his last.
Silverpeaks Station has two parts, a tussock-country block and a home block.
At weaning, the lambs and ewes were being moved from the tussock country to the home block.
The move had been motivated by lambs being eaten by wild pigs in the tussock-country block.
Cattle would continue to be run on the tussock block and lambs would be finished on the home block, making the need for a sale redundant.
After the sale at Silverpeaks Station, buyers travelled to another lamb and ewe sale more than 30km west at Mount Gowrie Station at Clarks Junction.
The top cut of Romney wether lambs, a lot of nearly 240, sold for $207 each.
More than 6500 lambs were offered and sold.
All of the ewes sold, including a pen of 315 Romney ewes for $267 each.
The second cut of ewes sold for $220 and a third cut for $148.
Mount Gowrie Station owner Jim MacDonald said his second annual sale went way beyond his expectations.
"I was expecting our top lambs to be about $140 but that’s just dream money. We’ve been waiting for that for years."
After the inaugural sale at Mount Gowrie last year, Mr MacDonald told Southern Rural Life the auction had superseded his expectations, when the lambs fetched between $87 and $139 each.
In comparison, he prices for lambs this year ranged between $119 and $207.
Mr MacDonald said the rising auction price rise this year would be because of a lift in the market including the fat lambs schedule price being about $10.60-$10.80 per kilogram carcass weight.
The plan was to continue the on-farm auction.
"With a bit of luck, they’ll all come back next year."
Selling the lambs after weaning left more grass for the ewes on-farm. The ewes then ovulated better, resulting in a lambing percentage rise of up to 8%.
The sale price for his ewes also exceeded his expectations, he said.
Anything beyond $200 for his ewes was a "gift", he said.
Selling lambs rather than finishing them ensured the three people working on the station, including himself, could get off-farm once in a while by removing some tasks, such as weighing, shearing and growing crops for lambs.
Staff had been happier and had more energy since the launch of the sale, Mr MacDonald said.
"This way, you enjoy farming."
PGG Wrightson auctioneer Mark Yeates, of Oamaru, said the vendors were being rewarded for their work breeding lambs.
"It is heartening for the sellers."
Buyers were able to bid with confidence as the forecast meat market price was strong and stable, he said.
"They can be confident there is a good margin in there for them."
Nearly 20 people registered to bid at the back-to-back sales.
Most of the buyers of the sheep were from Otago and Southland.
Grass growth had been good in most parts of the South.
"There’s good feed reserves around; there’s one or two corners which would like a wee bit more moisture but by and large it has been pretty good."
The prices paid for ewes at the sales showed a mutton shortage. he said.
In recent years, capital ewe numbers had fallen for reasons including a trend of farmers reducing flock sizes to increasing beef cattle numbers.
Demand was now strong for good quality store lambs, he said.
"They are being very well sought after."
The sale prices were a sign of the confidence in the sector, Mr Yeates said.
"Long may it continue."
