Ram sales have kicked off and early signs are good for results

It’s been a nervous time for ram breeders as prime markets fall but producers are shrugging off their confidence issues to spend.

Southern ram sales have kicked off with a bang with the season-opening Terrick West Poll Merinos boosting its average by almost 30 per cent on last year.

The McGauchie family’s Prairie-based stud sold 80 rams for an average of $3703 with the top price ram going to a commercial producer for $6500.

Terrick West principal Ross McGauchie said the sale was “unbelievable” and had been beyond their expectations.

While two studs operated and bought rams for $6000, Mr McGauchie said it was the strength of the commercial bidding which pushed the average up.

“The commercial guys were happy to pay $3000 to $5000 to secure rams and I think that reflects the consistency too of what we have worked so hard to archive,” he said.

“People might be anxious about the threat of foot and mouth disease but they are rightly taking the longer term view – you can’t stop and wait just because of a threat.”

Combined with the four rams Terrick West sold at the Australian Sheep and Wool Show in Bendigo, their stud is now averaging close to $4000 for this drop of rams and have three key sires being offered at the Adelaide ram sales.

Meanwhile, multi-vendor sales have also kicked off with Sheepvention’s first offering since 2019 topping at $26,000 last week.

The top-priced Yarrawonga Merino ram was bought by Western Australian stud principal Jarrod King from Warralea Poll Merinos.

Yarrawonga stud principal Steve Phillips, Harden, NSW, said the sale topper was “beyond all our expectations” after a long hiatus from the sale that stretched before Covid.

“We haven’t been to this sale in 20 years,” Mr Phillips said.

“We’ve just started the new Yarrawonga Plus stud so we wanted to get them out there for people to see.”

Mr Phillips put up six rams in the sale from his two stud prefixes.

Yarrawonga Poll sold the top priced ram and two rams at $16,000 and $5000 into Tasmania.

The three rams from the Yarrawonga Plus stud all found homes in Victoria.

Overall, in the Sheepvention sale, 72 rams sold from 85 offered, for an average of $4371 and top of $26,000.

In the breakdown, 67 Merinos averaged $4436 while the five Corriedale’s averaged $3500.

“It was all a bit unknown with how it would go being back live after three years,” Elders stud stock manager Ross Milne said.

“We’ve gone from over 200 rams back in 2019 down to 80 rams so we were wondering how the decrease in numbers might affect the sale.

“In the end we were pretty happy with the interest and sale result.”

Chris and Jacqui Arbuckle from St Arnaud picked up four rams all from the Glendonald Merino stud at Nhill.

Their volume purchase grossed $15,000 and included two rams at a top-price of $4000.

Other major buyers included Hamish Robertson of Austral Park Merinos at Tarrenlea who picked up four rams at an outlay of $10,000, and local commercial producer Malcolm Ford from Hamilton whose four rams cost $9000.