March-shorn Merino ewes made to $97.75 a head for three year olds, and to $90 a head for the two-year-old group during near $970,000 on-property dispersal of the renowned Steam Plains near Carrathool, NSW, Wednesday.

A keen attendance of buyers from all points competed for the 9982 Mungadal-blood ewes and their 10,074 lambs to end a 30-year association with the prestige Riverina property by the Twynam Group.

Bought from British Tobacco in 1979, the ownership of the 37,000-hectare property has now passed to Macquarie Bank's Paraway Pastoral and will remain unstocked until at least next winter while it recovers from the crippling conditions prevailing in the surrounding region.

* Extract from a full sale report to appear in Stock & Land, Vic, October 16 edition.