Greatly increased confidence among New Zealand sheep farmers bodes well for ram sales from October to February, Hugh Stringleman reports in Farmers Weekly NZ, as lamb prices above $12 a kilogram encourage commercial farmers to spend more time and money on better genetics.

Ram prices rose last summer as farmers reinvested record lamb returns in both terminal and maternal sires: reported auction sales averaged $1,864 a head, and some studs averaged $3,000 or slightly more. This summer promises a second year of record lamb prices, high mutton prices and a recovery in crossbred wool.

AgriHQ senior analyst Mel Croad expects a reset in lamb prices in the high season, but not enough to hurt ram sales. "Farmers can control their own ram purchasing and genetic inputs, potentially to soften any downside in lamb prices," she said. "Even if lamb prices do fall they are still historically very high and are likely to remain in double digits into 2027." The national ewe flock is around 14 million, and its decline has slowed to about 2 percent a year.

Blair Robertson of Merrydowns Romney and Southdown stud in Southland expects prices similar to last year, when Romneys averaged $2,100 and Southdowns $1,500, pointing to confidence, better wool prices and a new ram's payback within a year. Wairere principal Derek Daniell said prospects for sheep farming "haven't looked better for decades", though Wairere will hold its prices steady; he noted farmers spend three times more on bulls than on rams relative to their productive influence.

King Country breeder Alan Blake of Triple Farms Genetics will offer Coopworth, Coopdale and Suftex rams on 13 November, and in Central Otago Craigneuk will offer more than 200 Dorset Down and South Dorset rams in January, where vendor Johnny Duncan expects strong demand for terminal sires.

Photo: CattleGirl / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Source: Farmers Weekly NZ