AuctionsPlus sells record 100k sheep in one day

Surpassing the previous record set in September by more than 10,000 sheep, 103,587 sheep and lambs were sold across five sales on Tuesday.  

“It was extraordinary,” AuctionsPlus chief executive Anna Speer said.

The massive offering included more than 60,000 store lambs sold across two feature sales, covering the east coast’s northern and southern regions, as well as nearly 40,000 sold at AuctionsPlus’ commercial sheep sales, and Eastleigh Pastoral Merino flock dispersal with 2433 head.

A large line of 1190 White Dorper Ewes with 90 lambs at foot, offered by Weinteriga Station, Menindee, NSW, were sold into southern Queensland at $150.50.

A significant offering of 3940 second-cross lambs, sold across 10 lots, were offered by Munro, Gippsland, Victoria, and were purchased locally by the Bates family, "Wellington Hill", Munro, Vic.

A single buyer in North West NSW purchased all 2738 Merino wether lambs, offered by Mundadoo Family Trust, Nyngan , NSW, which were sold across five lots.

The strongest offering was NSW with 64,506, or 62pc, while 40pc of the nation-wide offering was purchased from interstate.

The furthest distance travelled was nearly 2000 kilometres with a mob sold from a property near Balranald, NSW, bound for Bundaberg, Queensland.

“Interstate is really exciting – we’re really noticing stock starting to go back into Queensland,” Ms Speer said.

“We have placed ourselves as a dedicated marketplace for store lambs.

“Conditions in key lamb breeding areas are reasonable and has contributing to the confidence.

“We are seeing more lambs turned-off as store than we did last year, but the latest (processor) contracts out for January kill space has also provided insight into buying lambs.”

A push since 2015 to have stock sold in categories has increased the feature sales’ profiles, according to Ms Speer.

The last 12 week spring selling season has seen numbers jump 56pc to 459,533 head sold across 12 sales, with an average lot of 358 head.

For the year-to-date, AuctionsPlus has sold nearly three million head online, including 1.4m sheep and more than 1.5m lambs.

“The biggest challenge for us was to get people to change their behaviour,” Ms Speer said.

“By putting the same article into one sale a really drives a premium, which is what we are trying to to do with weaners and yearlings.”

The number of vendors has spiked year-on-year, from 529 to 636.

Elders, Pakenham, agent Peter Rollason has been the top assessor for sheep sold on AuctionsPlus, responsable for 38,101 head sold, followed by Elders’ Greg Cobiac, Kingston, SA, with 30,675 and Landmark’s Geoff McDougall, Hay, NSW, with 25,777.

Ms Speer said the producers attraction to online trading of sheep has been stimulated by the stocks’ supporting paperwork, which will include mandatory sheep health declarations from 1 January.

“The history is a legal document which people are held accountable to,” she said.

“The more visibility and transparency across the marketplace the better position our entire supply-chain will be and the more confidence buyers will have to compete on a product when they have all the information.”​ 

Support for online sales is expected to increase further with a company push for greater use of the assessor grading.

“We don’t get a huge amount of complaints but we do take them very seriously when we do,” Ms Speer said.

“At the moment, the biggest challenge for sheep is weight, particularly stock coming out of dry areas, or when they’re being trucked long distances.

”We need a supply chain where everyone is accountable for the welfare of those animals, and that is an area I have seen a massive improvement in.”