AUCTIONEERS
AUCTIONEERS
COMMENT
MARKET
Banbury, Oxon
AUCTIONEER
Brian Pile
(Midland Marts)
TIME is running out for people with big numbers of hoggets left to sell, says Brian Pile.
Sheep on rented ground under agreements which end in February or March will have to go soon. "Certainly before the plough starts working."
Farmers will also be wary of keeping stock much later than March in the face of new specified risk material rules. Abattoirs, says Mr Pile, could be discounting such hoggets "mouthed" over a year old by more than £10.
"And no one wants to be left with large numbers after April, when spring lambs begin coming on stream.
"There are, meanwhile, a lot of hoggets still in the pipeline. With stores costing more than £40 last autumn, producers began postponing selling sheep when prices fell below 100p/kg, hoping values would rise. That didnt happen."
Some producers in the Midlands buy between 2000 and 12,000 stores in the summer and autumn, says Mr Pile. "Those with a lot still to sell will have to market some virtually every week – almost irrespective of the trade. There are not enough weeks left to spread them thinly."
So its vital now to make the best of a difficult job and present stock as well as possible. This means matching batches carefully for breed and weight. The ideal pen in Banbury is a dozen or 15, tightly drawn for weight, within 2kg or 3kg of each other.
This highlights, says Mr Pile, one of the advantages of selling through live auctions. "There are various customers, each with different requirements – so therell usually be someone to take a few heavy ones or someone prepared to have a gamble on the trade rising and take the lighter ones."
With this in mind, keep regularly inspecting stock, he advises. "They wont be altering from fit to fat in a day or two – but they need careful management and need to be drawn on a regular basis.
"Sheep must also be presented clean, so clipping in the days before taking them to mart usually pays. Another option, if the weather is wet, is to run them back onto drier ground or give them a few days in straw yards before marketing."
Live auctions are, he says, "one of the biggest producer groups in operation", sourcing stock of all descriptions and dispatching it to who and where it is required.
But the brutal reality, says Mr Pile, is that however well lambs are presented, many of those that were bought as stores will be losing money.
"Farmers are often looking for a sale value £15 or more than the purchase price. At the moment, theyre not even grossing the purchase level.
"This means people will be paying less for store lambs this summer. The established winter feeders, those that have got it down to a fine art, have already minimised costs in other areas – such as dosing and transport, leaving the purchase price the only big variable.
"People will also want to pay less for winter keep in the coming season, with 30p a head a week likely to be more common than the 50p regularly seen this season."
Brian Pile: "Time is running out for people still with hoggets."
Once bitten, twice shy? Farmers could well be paying less for store lambs this summer, with the sheep trade in the doldrums.