THE lack of rain in the Wheatbelt really hit home this week, with 21,730 sheep yarded at the Muchea Livestock Centre - the biggest offering at the centre in two years.
As reported in last week’s Farm Weekly, eastern and northern Wheatbelt growers have been looking for agistment to try and hold on to sheep flocks where possible.
But lack of options has forced growers to move to sell, prompting the big yarding on Tuesday.
The offering was nearly triple the size of the yarding in the same week last year, where 7635 sheep were offered.
And given the size of the yarding, many expected prices to take a hit but, in a positive for sellers, prices remained equal compared to recent sales.
In the Elders offering woolly mutton sold to $74 and shorn mutton to $60, while heavyweight lambs made a top of $112, but crossbred lambs ranged from $45 to $100 in general.
West Australian Meat Industry Authority chief executive Renata Paliskis said there had been many sectors of the Wheatbelt that hadn’t had significant rains to encourage adequate pasture growth.
“And as a consequence there are a number of properties that have run out of feed and that is why they are now turning stock off,” Ms Paliskis said.
She said the size of the yarding was the highest since 2011, and believed the trend would continue unless the Wheatbelt saw some significant rainfall soon.
“I think if we got some reasonable rains then the flow would stop,” she said.
Ms Paliskis said it was important to note that the sheep industry was currently selling a large amount of stock now that would traditionally be sold in the coming months.
“Essentially we are robbing the yarding of numbers for future months,” she said.
Elders Muchea sheep auctioneer Don Morgan said he did not think there would be another yarding of this size again soon.
“But there will certainly be reasonable numbers until we get a good rain,” Mr Morgan said.
“The market is holding up, obviously people are selling their sheep earlier than they were before.
“But they are getting good money and the prices haven’t come back today, which is a positive.”
Landmark sheep auctioneer Tiny Holly said the sale was traditionally a large one due to the start of the new financial year.
“But you add that to the conditions, this June being the second driest ever, it just snowballs everything,” Mr Holly said.
When Farm Weekly caught up with Mr Holly, about one third of the sale had been completed and despite the large yarding he said the market was heading in the right direction with reasonable prices and there had been no significant price drop.
“A drop may come but at this stage the trade has been very fair which is good,” he said.
Wubin farmer Peter Syme and his brother Ian sold a combination of 700 Merino and crossbred ewes and ewe lambs in the sale due to a lack of feed.
The pair have halved their flock this year and are now down to 1400 Merinos.
“Feed is short and we want to reduce the amount of handfeeding we are going to have to do,” Mr Syme said.
“Our ewes are lambing at the moment and we want to give them the best chance with the feed available.”
Mr Syme said he made the decision to sell because it hadn’t rained at his property in six weeks.
“You look at all the forecasts and they say it is not looking like rain for another fortnight, so things are going to be bare by then,” he said.
