A NATIONAL record was broken at Warrawee Park at Keith in South Australia today where 1.5 year-old Merino ewes sold for $290.
The line of 400 were bought by regular buyer Pat Lawlor, Marjon Park, Millicent, at the annual feature on-property off-shears sale.
A further 100 also sold for $290 to another SA buyer, Andrew Steer.Warrawee Park's Michael Allen told The Weekly Times he was "thrilled" with the result.
"I’m led to believe it is a national record," he said.
"It was considerably higher than what we would have expected, about $50/head higher than what we've sold previously.
"Last week's sale at Lameroo was very solid, and there aren't the sheep around from WA this year like there were available last year."
Mr Allen said his sheep were "typical large SA Merinos".
On offer at Warrawee Park were 600 1.5 year-old ewes, 400 5.5 year old ewes and 600 wether lambs.
The sale is part of a series of sale in the Upper South East of SA held this week.
Also today, a sheep sale at Keith was achieving very high prices.
At the time of writing young ewes had sold for $288 a head.
Today's hot sales follow a cracking sale at Lameroo last week where the same aged ewes cracked $272, a South Australian saleyard record.
There, a pen of 150 large, plain-bodied April-May drop Ridgeway Advance-blood ewes, September-shorn, were sold by David Farr, Loxton, to a Penola buyer.
Agents noted demand at Lameroo was driven by sheep shortages, good quality and presentation, and changes to OJD rules that meant SA producers could no longer buy WA sheep
More details on today's Keith-area sales to come.
