WITH the recent burst of hot weather helping to get the grain harvest completed, the pasture in the paddock has dried off with supplementary feeding now underway on most farms.<\/p>\n
This has finally triggered some large hay movements enabling farmers to offload last season\u2019s rolls that have been slowly deteriorating in outside storage areas.<\/p>\n
Large numbers of rolls have been leaving the Freshwater Creek area to the Western District and to the north of Geelong for $22 in the paddock, with some of this season\u2019s hay starting to budge at $35 to $45 per roll. Lucerne is still in high demand with local reserves of this high-protein hay all but gone.<\/p>\n
There were 35,000 lambs yarded at Ballarat Tuesday, with shorn lambs featuring widely.<\/p>\n
Market Highlights Ballarat Sheep & Cattle:<\/strong>
\nHeavy shorn lambs to $230
\nTrade shorn lamb to $175
\nLight lambs to $130
\nMutton $5 to $10 per head easier
\nLight yearling calves to 20 cents dearer
\nYearling heifers to 265 cents
\nYearling steers to 275 cents
\nQuality heifer vealers to 244 cents
\nQuality steer vealers to 278 cents
\nCows to 233 cents<\/p>\n