THE Lane family, formerly of Lynburn Suffolk stud, Wongan Hills, said goodbye to their stud flock last week when they held their dispersal at Narrogin which reached a top price of $4100 for a white tag ram lamb sold to an Eastern States syndicate.
With big cropping and Merino enterprises to keep on top of, the Lanes decided it was time to streamline their business by getting out of the stud Suffolk game.
“We love our sheep but we don’t love showing sheep and all of those sorts of things that come with running a stud,” said Ross Lane.
“We’ll continue to run sheep at our place, but it was time to simplify the business.”
Mr Lane said the dispersal sale results were above his expectations and he was pleased to see so many studs from WA and the Eastern States interested in the sheep.
Elders auctioneer Nathan King said the level of interest in the sale showed the respect the Lane family had earned during their time breeding quality Suffolk genetics.
“I think it was a really good sale,” Mr King said.
“We had good interest in the room and via AuctionsPlus which shows there is a lot of respect for the Lynburn sheep within the industry.”
The Lane family offered nearly 120 Lynburn ewes and 34 rams at auction, along with 450 doses of Glencraig blood semen.
The ewes ranged in age from 2008 to 2017 drop and the majority of the rams were last year’s lambs.
Topping the sale was a stretchy young ram lamb late in the catalogue with excellent figures, which clearly caught the eye of many in the shed when the bidding went all the way to $4100.
A syndicate of three Eastern States studs were the lucky buyers with Andy Donnan, Kerangie stud, Woomelang, Victoria, Landmark Breeding Services’ Roy Addis representing Bundarra Downs stud, Bordertown, South Australia and Jon Sutherland, Sayla Park stud, Kilmore, Victoria, in attendance at the sale.
Mr Sutherland said the syndicate planned to milk the young ram for semen to be used within the three studs.
“We liked the extreme muscle and fat you can see on him,” Mr Sutherland said.
“He will suit our flocks and provide a bit of linkage between the three studs.”
The Lynburn genetics will represent a new bloodline for the studs.
The young ram was by a Glencraig sire and tipped the scales at 82 kilograms with an eye muscle depth (EMD) of 2.9, a score of 2.1 PFAT and 200 Carcass+.
Mr Sutherland also secured the top-priced ewe of the sale for himself when he bought a Lynburn sired white tag ewe lamb for $875.
The young ewe also had an impressive Carcass+ score at 196, complemented by an EMD of 2.3.
Second overall top-price honours went to Tim Starcevich, Brimloo, Salmon Gums, when he landed the first ram lamb to be offered at $2100.
The Blackbutt blood ram weighed 85kg and had a Carcass+ score of 197.
Mr Starcevich said the ram would join his other purchases on the day operating within his family’s stud operation in the Esperance region.
“The ram is long, stands well and has good fat and figures,” he said.
“We’ve used some Lynburn genetics before and they’ve done well for us so we saw this sale as a good opportunity to get some more into our breeding program.”
The second top-priced ewe was a 2015 drop Blackbutt sired ewe which sold to the Eastern States for $825.
Red tag ewes topped at $700 on two occasions, black tag ewes topped at $675 and yellow tags topped at $600, with the average price paid per ewe sitting at $395.
The average price per ram was $537 and doses of Glencraig blood semen fetched between $9 and $10 each.
The volume buyer on the day was Tarryn Gray, Tarlinga stud, Kirup, who attended the sale with her dad Greg and bought 23 ewes under the hammer for an average of $306.
Ms Gray wants to up numbers in her stud flock and said she liked the big framed, well-structured sheep at Lynburn.
“The figures on the Lynburn sheep are good too and hopefully they’ll do well in the flock at home,” she said.
A big portion of the ewes sold to an AuctionsPlus account with 16 bought through the online platform at an average of $323.
In the ram portion of the catalogue, the volume buyer was Jamie Hart, Elders Kojonup, who was buying on behalf of Wheatfield Pastoral Co, securing a total of 17 ram lambs at auction to an average of $303.
Other buyers operated on the day including stud breeders and commercial producers, all contributing to a successful sale under the hammer with negotiations continuing privately after the sale.
