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 Hamilton sets new records for sheep & lambs

Sheep Central, December 17th 2021

Father-son lamb-producing team Rick and Hugh Foster were happy with their lamb prices at Hamilton on Wwednesday.

In Hamilton, after 39,063 lambs on Monday, another 62,500 on Wednesday and 18,100 sheep on Thursday, agents had yarded a record 119,663 sheep and lambs, beating the previous weekly yarding record by 9663 head.

Heavy lamb prices reached a new peak for Hamilton on Wednesday, with young Casterton producer Hugh Foster’s 28 Poll Dorset cross lambs selling for a record $330 to Gathercole through LMB Linke and Livestock. The estimated carcase weight of the lambs was 38kgs. He also sold another seven lambs for $290 as part of a larger line offered by his father Rick Foster. Mr Foster’s top line of Poll Dorset cross lambs made $327 and another Suffolk cross lambs made $294.

Mr Foster said the lambs were the last of 7000 he had marketed this season, 80pc of them over the hooks.

“It’s been a good year all round, although you don’t set out to set these records.”

He said the same export buyers were returning to buy the ‘Haven Park’ lambs each year.

Mr Foster said the Hamilton agents had done a great job processing the record number of sheep and lambs through the market. With the income and employment the sheep and lamb sales brought into the city and district, the effort deserved national recognition, he said.

“It’s a hell of an effort by farmers, truck drivers, all the agents and people associated with it, and it’s not a one-off, it’s been going on for a few weeks.

“I think it is disappointing that it doesn’t get more recognition.”

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Homegrown Foster ewes and rams yield record lamb price

Terry Sim, December 10, 2021

UNRELENTING demand for heavy export lambs has happily coincided with the self-replacing ewe and ram breeding program of Casterton producer Rick Foster.

On Wednesday this week, 75 of his Haven Park Poll Dorset-Composite cross lambs set a new record of $324 for new season lambs at the Hamilton saleyards.

The 75 June-drop lambs sold by LMB Linke Land & Livestock to Gathercole for a US order had an estimated carcase weight of 35-36kg, with skins valued at $8. Another 210 Foster lambs sold for $290 to Fletcher International Exports on Wednesday.

“They were just exceptional lambs,” LMB Linke Land and Livestock auctioneer Bernie Grant said.

But Wednesday’s prices were the last in a progression of high heavy lamb prices realised by the Foster operation as strong American demand for Australia’s heavy lambs continued...

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Stock Journal Article 2013

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