WHO said there was no money in sheep?
For the last six months ewe prices in the saleyards have hit levels which farmers have only dreamed about and this came to a climax on Friday at the FarmWorks-Primaries Special sheep sale at Katanning when a new State record auction price for ewes was set.
But it is not only in the yards where WA sheep producers are being rewarded for their genetics they are also recieving top prices on-farm.
In most cases the only reason why producers are selling is because of the season and this was certainly the case for Mollerin Rock Dohne stud principals Ian and Stephanie Longmuir, who recently received $150 on-farm for a line of 310 F2 bare shorn, 1.5yo (white tag) ewes.
The ewes were part of the operation's 630 ewe hoggets and because of the season they could only keep the 320 F3 ewes as replacement breeders.
The ewes were purchased by John and Peter Miell, Tintinara, South Australia, who had been following the Mollerin Rock bloodline from a distance for some time through Farm Weekly.
The Miell's purchase this year will add to the two B-Doubles of Dohne ewes they bought from WA two years ago.
"We purchased a farm three years ago and have been planting it to lucerne and slowly building up our stock numbers," John said.
"We are just at the numbers now were we can breed our own self-replacing flock, the ewes from the Longmuirs will be mated to Dohne rams.
John said they first started looking into the Dohne breed after reading the Dohne News column which used to appear in the Farm Weekly.
Along with the white tag ewes the Longmuirs also sold a line of red taggers for $120 to the Miell's neighbour.
Mr Longmuir said it was good to see Eastern States producers prepared to pay good money for ewes.
"It's about time ewes were the highest-priced sheep on farm," he said.
In addition to the sale of the hoggets the Longmuirs just sold their wool.
"They cut 5kg of 18 micron wool which sold for 766c/kg giving us another $27.30/head," Mr Longmuir said.
"It's a pity we have to sell good breeding ewes but it is just a case of helping with the cash flow in a poor year.
It is not only the Longmuir ewes, however, which have been sold to South Australia through Elders Koorda agent Wayne Maher.
Mr Maher also has sold a line of F2 4.5yo ewes for $120 and a line of F1 4.5yo ewes for $115, as well as a line of 400 unshorn ewe lambs for $80 from the area carrying the Mollerin Rock bloodline, to the Naracoorte area in South Australia.
