UPDATE: STUD ewes sold to a top of $400 during early bidding at the Uardry Merino dispersal sale at Hay in the NSW Riverina.

The famed Uardry Merino studs were dispersed at the Hay saleyards in NSW today with prices, like the sale itself, dividing opinion among the sheep fraternity.

The best price for young stud Merino ewes, classed out as "specials" and sold in pen lots of 25 head, reached $400 for the 2011 drop Sims Uardry ewes and were bought by the FS Falkiner Group which operates the other big name studs in the Riverina – Wanganella and Boonooke.

The Sims Uardry Poll stud ewes sold to a top of $350, while biding for the top classed lines of the Uardy stud ewes reached $300.

After this prices for ewes generally ranged from $150 to $250 a head, with commercial sheep breeders from Victoria, NSW and into Queensland securing a fair portion of the sheep, especially the older breeders which were offered in bigger lines.

Later in the sale an offering of halter-broken stud rams sold to a top of $7000.

Tom Brinkworth, who recently bought the property and made the snap decision to disperse the studs, told The Weekly Times the headline on the story should be “sale of the century’’.

When asked if that indicated he thought the prices were outstanding, he said no, prices had just been “OK’’. Rather Mr Brinkworth said:  “you will never see another sale like it’’.

The reaction among the big crowd to the sale was mixed, with some surprised the sheep hadn’t made more but others rating it a good result.

Paul Cocking, from Riverina Wool Testers, summed it up best when he said people’s impression of the sale varied according to the production status – either stud or commercial.

“If you are a stud, and are buying these ewes to breed and sell rams, there has been some fantastic value here,’’ he said.

“But if you are a commercial breeder they have probably made their money.’’

The volume buyer, both in number and price, was the FS Falkiner group, which bought 600 ewes and about 400 young ram lambs.

FS Falkiner Group managing director Bill Newton said the Uardry sheep would be run as a separate flock and had been bought for their sound genetics and performance history as well as the chance for the operation to gain new clients who wanted to stick to the Uardry bloodines.