A FEW more sheep attended Matawhero yesterday than the last outing — 780 in total.

Store lambs are dwindling away and only 165 head faced the usual punters, who displayed reasonable interest in some nice lines of ewes with lambs.

The prime section was quite well stocked with 282 head and the market for prime ewes returned to the higher levels of three weeks ago.

Some of the 2-th and younger ewes in the section may have been destined for the early-mating Ewe Fair in December, but the result for vendors was much more satisfactory than recently.

Almost all prime ewes sold between $83 and $89.50. A nice line of shorn 2-th ewes was knocked down at $89.

Butcher lambs fetched value at $103-$111.

The best line of ewe lambs in the store pens made $155, while another lot sold at $103.50. The rest were small lots and made $60-$94.50.

Interest perked up when the crowd moved to the ewes and lambs. The first two lots were remarkable for two main reasons. First, the evenness of the Texel cross lambs and the very high percentage.

The first lot was 57 ewes with 107 lambs (193 percent) and the second line contained 43 ewes and 74 lambs. Both lots were from the Waiau Partners and both sold at $57.50 all-counted representing a very sound investment.

A further 79 woolly ewes with 97 lambs, from W. Brooking also looked agood buy at $54 all-counted, the highest price going to a 4/4 combination at $59.50.

Young dry ewes also attracted attention, a pen of 4-ths from M. and C. Utting sold at $115, their mixed age lines making $96 while store ewes ranged from $54.50-$71.

Store lamb sales: Rangiata Station 76 at $115; R. Black 61 at $103.50.