Victorian buyers were in demand of Merryville stud ewes, paying a top price of $220 per head, twice, for pens of stud ewes at the Merryville 34th annual stud and flock ewe sale on Thursday.
It was a full clearance for the Merrimans who offered 19 pens of stud ewes and 4 pens of flock ewes with a total of 1050 ewes sold for a $117.01/head average.
Two hundred and fourty three cast for age (CFA) stud ewes averaged $152.57/head and 215 maiden stud ewes averaged $151.20/head. One hundred and fourty eight maiden flock ewes average $120/head and 444 CFA flock ewes averaged $80/head.
Victorian based repeat buyers, the Barty family from Beverley Merino stud, Redesdale, purchased one of the top-priced pens of stud ewes for the top dollar of $220/head.
The pen was made up of 28 CFA, superfine stud ewes that were June shorn and just had their lambs weaned.
Annually shearing around 18,000 sheep, John Barty said they are based on a fair bit of Merryville bloodlines and chased this pen for its high quality.
“We recently purchased Merryville rams at the Great Southern Supreme Merino show in January and the Mudgee Ram sale held earlier in the week,” Mr Barty said.
“We liked this pen of ewes a lot. It was a pen of good quality ewes with three or four that could be show ewes or used in an embryo transfer program.”
The only pen of Poll Merino ewes sought interest from keen buyers but it was Landmark representative, Rick Power, who secured the equal top-priced pen of stud Poll ewes for $220/head for his client, Glenn Brothers from Bendigo, Victoria.
It consisted of 17 mixed-age Poll Merino May and June shorn stud ewes.
Flock ewes topped at $120/head for a pen of 148 18-month-old May and June shorn ewes. They were purchased by Landmark Boorowa.
Merryville Merino stud co-owner George Merriman, Boorowa, said he was happy to see some new clients and “it was a good result with fair buying.”
“These sorts of sales are a good opportunity for commercial and stud growers to come and source some genetics,” Mr Merriman said.
Elders and Landmark conducted the sale with Steve Ridley (Elders) as the auctioneer for the stud ewe pens and Rick Power taking over the duties for the flock ewes.