Store stock prices appear to have settled at levels much higher than last year, but agents say prices are not out of control.
PGG Wrightson Otago stock manager Chris Swale said the market was being underpinned by a combination of plenty of grass virtually everywhere in the South Island and high meat and wool prices.
Store lambs are selling for $3 to $3.30 a kg with some making even more.
A year ago the price was between $2.40 and $2.50 a kg.
Mr Swale said there was a shortage of store lambs and even though there was ample feed, farmers were holding on to lambs longer.
The killing season was about five weeks late as farmers were targeting heavier lamb weights.
However, the lush pasture growth meant lambs were slower putting on condition.
Farmers might regard late March as a point where decisions had to be made about whether to sell lambs and that could be when forward store lambs came on to the market, Mr Swale said.
The market for replacement breeding stock was also buoyant, but again, not out of control, he said.
Ewe lambs were fetching $110 to $130 while top Perendale two-tooths sold at Balclutha recently for $185 to $209.
Five-year-old Perendale ewes at the same sale surprised by fetching $140 to $160 compared with $102 a year earlier.
Few ewes were for sale and Mr Swale said they had exceptional breeding and some wool.
"Any good, well-bred sheep like that, they [buyers] don't hesitate too much," he said.
But with heavy ewes making $120 to $130 at freezing works, it was not costing farmers much to replace them with breeding stock.
Mr Swale believed some farmers were sitting back to see how long meat and wool prices stayed at current levels before deciding whether to increase their flocks.
"They don't want to spend money only to see everything drop."
Attention was also starting to turn to calf sales which begin in a month, with farmers likely to go in to the winter with plenty of grass and a prime beef schedule at a historic high for this time of year.
PGG Wrightson Central Otago livestock manager John Duffy said the average price over all stock offered at last week's Cromwell fine wool ewe and lamb fair was $94 compared with $61 a year ago and $48 the year before that.
That momentum continued the following day at the Omarama merino lamb sale, where lambs sold for $60 and $70 compared with $2 and $5 three years ago.
At Cromwell, top merino wether lambs sold for $90 to $99, mediums $80 to $90 and the lowest priced pen, $52.
Wethers crossed with a terminal sire made $75 to $100 and Polwarths $92 to $101.
Top merino ewe lambs made $80 to $96.50 and small down to $60.
Two-shear merino ewes made $141, annual draft ewes $105 to $125, mediums $78 to $100 and light from $60.
Mr Duffy said Canterbury farmers were buying lambs for wintering on crop stubble and for sale in the spring.
The excellent growing conditions in Central Otago generated some competition from local buyers, but some farmers were looking to rebuild flocks after four years of dry weather.