With white hot demand fuelled by a widening pool of restockers, caused by a mixture of renewed demand from mixed farmers scaling back their cropping programs this year and sudden interest from areas that received a solid start to the season with heavy rain last week, Mr Rutledge said there was the likelihood that the current record prices for ewes would be smashed.

However Mr Rutledge cautioned that the old theory of supply and demand still prevails.

“Certainly a pen of quality Merino ewes can be expected to make $200/head in the not too distant future but it will take some handling” Mr Rutledge said.

“From a financial perspective it must be understood that such a purchase of a truckload of ewes would amount to the outlay $100,000” Mr Rutledge said.

“People stepping into this area will need to be fully aware of their cash reserves or have a good understanding of the lending terms from financiers” he said.

The Urana sale Friday marked the 75th anniversary of sheep sales held at Urana by the town’s long-time resident agency, JM Smith & Co.

Present day manager of the business, Denis P. Smith who was presented with a commemorative trophy to mark the occasion by Elders said the 75th anniversary sale had sold 12,985 head grossed $1,404,568.50 in total proceeds for an outstanding per head average of $108.17.

The market’s top price of $188 was a record for the centre Mr Smith said.