WA stud Rangeveiw Poll Merinos hits top price in feature ram sale at sheep show
West Australian Merinos made their mark at the Australian Sheep and Wool Show, gaining the top price for a ram.
Merino rams sold to $24,000 at the Australian Sheep and Wool Show ram sale as honours for the best price headed west.
It was one of the final rams to be sold of the nearly 100 put up for sale, offered by West Australian stud Rangeveiw Poll Merinos at Darkan, which took the honours for the top price.
Of the 93 rams offered, 77 sold for a clearance of 83 per cent and an average of $5390.
The sale’s top-price ram tested 20.4 micron and was rising two years. It sold to Thalaba Pastoral Company operating through Nutrien at Goulburn NSW.
Many of the rams offered were single purchases with the buyers list showing 42 buyers bought just one ram each.
One of those who bought two was the Mathews family from Borambil Merinos at Corowa, NSW, who paid $14,000 for an 18 micron ram from Langdene, Dunedoo, NSW, and $10,000 for another of the Rangeview Merino rams, a Poll Merino testing 19.4 micron.
Elders stud stock’s Ross Milne said the ram sale at Bendigo tended not to vary much with prices from year to year.
“We can see people make a bit of an outlay but most people know what they want to spend and are less affected by what is happening with commodities like wool,” Mr Milne said.
“The general trend at this multi-vendor sale is that they make sure that they have enough to spend on the ram they want.”
But Mr Milne said it the sale was not a good indicator of what might happen in the spring sales, especially as there was a mix of sires suitable for studs and flocks in the offering at Bendigo.
“What we have seen at the Bendigo sale should not be used as a predictor for what might happen when we come to sales in September,” he said.
Coryule Merinos manager Craig Tricky from Willowvale sold four rams to a top of $7000 and an average of $4750.
That included the ram that was earlier judged grand champion superfine ram, a two-year-old August-shorn ram that tested 17.9 micron and weighed 126 kilograms which made $5000.
Mr Tricky said the best they had achieved at the feature sale was $20,000 in 2018 which was the equal top price that year.
“All the states are represented at this sale so you are not sure how it will go until you get here,” Mr Tricky said.
The sale grossed $415,000.
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