The annual fair, being held on Friday, is being split between the Central Canterbury Saleyards at Coalgate, near Hororata, from 10am and the Central Saleyards at Sheffield, west of Darfield, from 12pm.
Peter Walsh & Associates livestock broker Gary Batchelor said initial indications suggested there would be more than 20,000 ewes on sale.
That was until several farmers pulled out after some disputing results at the Hawarden and Temuka ewe fairs in recent weeks.
‘‘There’s been a few pulled, as some farmers have decided to put them to a ram and sell them later, scanned with a lamb.’’
Even so, he expected there would be more than 16,000 ewes go under the hammer, including two-tooth ewes at Coalgate and mixed-age ewes and rams at Sheffield.
Mr Batchelor said there would be a few capital lines of ewes and plenty of quality stock to choose from.
‘‘There will be some pretty good ewes on sale.
‘‘There has been a drop in the mutton schedule, so I would expect there will be some pretty good buys for farmers.’’
The fallout from the deadly coronavirus outbreak in China and the dry summer were both having an impact, on the market but Mr Batchelor hoped last week’s rain could be enough to encourage more farmers to get along to the sale with their chequebooks to buy up stock.
Splitting the ewe fair between two saleyards would save having to put up overflow pens, Mr Batchelor said.
The Coalgate saleyards hosted a weekly Thursday sale, which will be moved to Wednesday for next week.
-By David Hill
