RESTOCKERS outbid the butchers at the Hay spring sheep sale last Friday where they bagged more than 11,000 of the 12,000 Merino wether lambs yarded.
While farmers were few on the ground, agents from across southern and central NSW, South Australia and Victoria bid up on their behalf to secure store Merino wether lambs for producers with opportunity feed to finish them for sale by mid next year.
The Merino wether lamb market topped at $75 but it was the crossbred lamb market that fired up processor competition.
With only 2000 crossbred lambs offered, bidding spiked at $88 for four-month-old unshorn ewe lambs.
Vendor, John Porter, "Miegunyah", sold his crossbred lambs early due to dry times on his Booroorban property.
The 475 mixed-sex July/August-drop Merino/White Suffolk lambs were secured by restocker Paul McAuliffe, "Hensman", Narromine, for $62 a head.
"I'd normally carry them through summer and sell them as suckers in January, but they had to go - we just don't have the feed to carry them through the hotter months," Mr Porter said.