IT was another good roll up of clients from a widespread area for the Rintoul family’s 24th annual on-property sale north of Williams on Monday for its Dongiemon Merinos and Tilba Tilba fine wool Merinos and Poll Merinos.
Selling agent for the Dongiemon offering was Landmark with Elders handling the two Tilba Tilba catalogues with Preston Clarke once again acting as auctioneer for the entire catalogue.
Overall in the sale the Rintouls offered 163 rams and sold 130 for an average of $1405, which was up $173 on last year.
In last year’s sale they offered 168 rams and sold 142 for an average of $1232.
Commenting on the overall result sale Mr Clarke said it was a great presentation across all three offerings and the buyers obviously enthused by current wool prices were prepared to bid up accordingly to purchase rams which they know will give the results they want.
p Dongiemon
Strong support from many long-term clients saw very spirited bidding on the run of Dongiemon Merino rams which opened the sale and bidding was such that the first 20 rams offered were just $35 short of averaging $2000.
It was the eighth ram which topped the overall sale and also the Dongiemon team when it was knocked down by Mr Clarke at $2400 to Mike Burges, Commodine Farms, Cuballing.
The ram had current wool figures of 22 micron, 4.0 SD, 18.2 CV and 98.4 per cent comfort factor (CF).
Mr Burges, who was accompanied by his son Sam, was one of a number of volume buyers going home with 10 rams for his breeding flock and said he had been on Dongiemon blood for about 17 years and was delighted with the results he was getting.
Along with the 1700 ewe breeding flock, Mr Burges also runs wethers through to about 4.5 years and said they were all great sheep and great bale fillers.
Losing bidder on the top-priced ram was John Batt, AJ Batt & Co, Boddington, who went to $2300 for one of the six he purchased on the day.
Another long-term client coming up from Broomehill each year, having first bought from Dongiemon more than 25 years ago was Kevin Winspear, trading as NH Winspear & Co.
This year Mr Winspear went home with seven Dongiemon sires, with one also at $2300.
More locally, another long-term client, David Carter, DA Carter, Williams, purchased 10 and the volume buyer purchasing 13 head was another loyal client, Gary Abbott, GJ & RE Abbott, Duranillin.
Next door neighbours to the Rintouls, Doug and Mark Fowler, DCS & JA Fowler & Co, bought seven Dongiemon rams up to $2200 twice and Anne Kennedy, EK & L Kennedy also with a Williams address, secured eight up to $2000,
Also going to $2000 for one of five purchased was Andrew Carstairs, G Carstairs & Co, Dwarda.
Another local client, Michael Egerton-Warburton, trading as Blueburn Farming, bid to $2100 for one of the nine Dongiemon rams he bought and later topped up with one from the Tilba Tilba Merino offering.
A more recent client to the stud, Bruce Dowsett, Norrine Farms Pty Ltd, Pingelly, went home with six rams last year and was back again this year, increasing his number to seven while three other regulars bought 15 head between them.
This year the stud offered 109 rams and sold 98, at an average of $1508, up by $166 from 12 months ago.
p Tilba Tilba
The Tilba Tilba fine wool offering saw 23 Poll Merinos offered first up and these saw good competition from return clients.
The top price was $2100 and this was paid by first-time buyers to the stud last year Hayden and Shelby Harries, HP & SJ Harries, Boyup Brook.
They founded their stud with the purchase of 600 fine wool ewes from Ms Jennifer Nalder, who until dispersing her flock had been on Tilba Tilba bloodlines for about seven years.
Again this year she attended the sale with Hayden and Shelby who have now registered their Olboa Merino stud.
This is the first Poll ram they have purchased and it was a good young upstanding ram with wool figures of 16.4 micron, 3.3 SD, 20.1 CV and 99.9pc CF.
They will select some of their top ewes to join it from the 60 ewes they have in their stud.
The stud flock is run in conjunction with a commercial flock of about 700 ewes.
Also operating in the Poll offering was Stephen Adams, sheep technical officer at the Western Australian College of Agriculture, Harvey, who brought over a number of students to attend the sale.
Mr Adams bought the first two rams offered at $1700 each and another later at $1200 for the college’s Mornington Poll Merino stud which has been classed by Stuart Rintoul for the past 38 years.
Two rams up to $1200 went to Ben Lamont, B & TC Lamont, Tambellup, and another also up to $1200, along with three from the Tilba Tilba Merino offering, were bought on behalf of a regular client of the stud, Rowan Matchett, Trunky Creek, New South Wales.
Of the 23 Poll rams offered 15 sold at auction for an average of $1107, which was up by $235 on last year’s result.
Last offered were 31 Tilba Tilba Merino rams and again with a couple of clients suffering poor seasonal conditions, competition was down on last year however the average of $1071 for the 17 which sold, was up by $204 on last year.
The top price in this offering was also $2100, paid by the Ludgate family, Cobham Pastoral Co, York, with another two up to $1100 also bought from the sale.
Having bought from the Merino offering last year on which to build their stud, Hayden and Shelby Harries bought four Merinos up to $1100 joining their first Poll Merino purchased earlier.
Another long-term return buyer back again this year was Greg Cocking, EH & BN Cocking & Son, Wannamal, who has been a Tilba Tilba client for more than 12 years, running about 2000 breeding ewes at Wannamal.
Mr Cocking bought three from the sale at up to $1700 and said he just sold hogget wool of 16.8 micron and 70pc yield which returned $20.01 per kilo.
Included in the first-time buyers were Neville and Kay Dalton, Kojonup, who run about 800 fine wool breeding ewes.
They bought two Merinos up to $1000 as a new bloodline to their operation.
