About 40 sheep were on offer at Waiareka Saleyards near Ōamaru last week.
Vendors Ngaire Buchan and Neil Edge, of Hampden, offered 10 of last year’s lambs and two empty ewes at the sale.
They owned four of the lambs and the rest were on a PGG Wrightson Go-Lamb contract.
Under the contract, PGG Wrightson buys the lambs and own them and Ms Buchan and Mr Edge finish them.
They received the trading margin for the lambs minus the PGG Wrightson rate and the selling costs.
"It works good for us," Ms Buchan said.
They run up to 120 sheep on their 20ha property.
"We feed them up for a few months and shift them on again," she said.
Lambing began late last month.
The plan was to sell ewes with lambs at foot at the saleyards.
About eight years ago, the couple bought Hampden Takeaways on State Highway 1.
They also trained about 10 racehorses, all trotters.
"We are run off our feet. It is a busy lifestyle but we like it."
Mr Edge said business owners had to ‘ spread their wings to survive in the current economic climate.
"There is no money in anything," he said.
Robbie Mitchell, who co-owns Moeraki Village Holiday Park, offered 16 Romney-cross lambs from last year’s crop.
The lambs were the leftovers from a block on his 160ha farm in Hampden.
More than half of the lambs had already arrived this season.
The recent rainfall was needed, he said.
"It has been a hard season after the dry in the summer and autumn."
He hoped spring would feature "a few showers and some warm weather".
PGG Wrightson North Otago livestock manager Mark Yeates said there was a full clearance at the sale. Lambs sold for between $114 and $181 and ewes fetched between $80 and $120.
