BUYERS were spoilt for choice at the Kerin family's on-property ram sale at Katanning last week when it offered a top line of White Suffolks from its Ashbourne stud and Prime SAMMs from its Rockdale and Gracefield flocks.
It was a huge sale with the family offering 232 White Suffolk and Prime SAMM rams plus 25 White Suffolk ewes and by the end they had achieved a pleasing clearance with 205 rams sold and 24 ewes cleared under the hammer.
In the breakdown 123 from 125 White Suffolk rams sold under the hammer for an average of $1230 and to a sale top of $4000. The average for the White Suffolk ram offering was up $51 on last year.
The 24 White Suffolk ewes sold topped at $1000 and averaged $583.
When it came to the Prime SAMM offering the family cleared 82 of the 107 rams offered at an average of $929 and to a top of $2200.
White Suffolk
A draft of 25 stud ewes set the tone for a buoyant Ashbourne White Suffolk offering in the sale.
Stud breeders and aspiring stud breeders left no doubt there were some gilt-edged genetics among the offering and those same genetics soared to a $4000 top ram price.
Ashbourne 120020, known as The Duke, figured in both the top selling ram and the $1000 top price ewe.
The offering was presented in paddock-run condition but with solid LambPlan figures buyers bid confidently for proven genetics.
The $1000 top price ewe sold to Brenton Addis to form a new stud Yonga Downs, to be run on the Garnett family's property at Gnowangerup where Brenton works.
Spokesman and Landmark Breeding representative Roy Addis said the stud was being established to run alongside the Garnett's existing Poll Dorset stud to offer clients a broader choice of breeds.
The ewe, by a half-brother to The Duke, had LambPlan figures showing a twin birth, 0.38 bodyweight, 8.86 weaning weight, 15.81 post weaning weight, 0.13 fat and 2.53 eye muscle depth estimated breeding values that contributed to a 204.23 CarcasePlus index.
The men bought four ewes in total and Mr Addis said they would complement the ewes they would be sourcing in the near future.
They had already bought a $12,500 Bundara Downs sire with outstanding Australian Sheep Breeding Values at Adelaide sale recently.
Nathan Ditchburn, Golden Hill, Kukerin, bought just two ewes and paid the $800 equal second top price in a quest for new bloodlines via 120046 and planned to infuse them rapidly using ET programs.
Greg Hyde, Kohat stud, Ongergup, also paid $800 and bought six ewes carrying predominantly The Duke breeding.
The ewe offering was a progressive step for Ashbourne studmaster Simon Kerin, who presented a vastly expanded offering in a new shed on-farm and the mood flowed into the ram offering with all but two of the 125 rams sold under Landmark auctioneer Mark Warren's hammer.
The $4000 top price ram sold to Giovi Ltd, The Grange White Suffolk stud at Dongara and was bought by livestock manager Geoff Crabb.
Mr Crabb said the stud had been established only 12 months ago to supply rams for the farm's own needs and while they were chasing the Ashbourne bloodline they also wanted a ram with good structure, feet and figures.
They found that in a The Duke son with a 212.93 CP index that had an outstanding 11.11 weaning weight ASBV.
Commercial prime lamb producers also set some impressive prices sending values above the $2000-mark repeatedly driven by some excellent prime lamb marketing results in recent weeks.
Braden Johnston, Johnston Plains, Nyabing, paid $2100 and $2000 (3) as he put together a four ram team.
He said he sold the first of this year's prime lambs in late July and the last of them went off a couple of days before the sale catching premium early price schedules and averaging $139 a head.
"We put them over Merino-Prime SAMM cross ewes and have been doing it for a few years and it is working for us so we will keep doing it," Mr Johnston said.
Brothers Wayne and Brad Tapscott, Pingrup, had a similar policy and went hard to buy 12 rams paying the $2600 second top price and buying others at $2300 and $2050.
Wayne Tapscott said they wanted big frame, long square rams saying big rams bred big lambs.
They bred about1500-1800 crossbred lambs to drop in March and aimed to have them sold before too many suckers came onto the market.
The sale was well supported to the end with new buyers among the 46-strong buying register.
Mr Kerin said he was impressed with the results, client support and, in particular, the stud interest.
This year an extra 25 rams were included in the offering and the $1230 ram average was a jump of $51 on last year with a further 60-70 commercial rams scheduled to be offered at the BreedersBest sale in Kojonup soon.
Others to buy high price rams included Stoney Enterprise, Gnowellen, which bought one ram for $2500 and a $500 ewe; SP & KM Scholz, Esperance, paid $2000 and filled their ute; Grant Bingham, Iveston stud, Williams, paid $2150.
Volume buyer Lachlan Smith, Miarunging Estate, Pingelly, came to the sale to buy four Prime SAMM rams but, concerned he might not be able to get the numbers from his usual White Suffolk source, he bought 12 White Suffolks saying his ram numbers were depleted this year.
Prime SAMM
In the Prime SAMM side of the sale clients loyal to Gracefield came en masse and took prices to a $2200 top and with a full year to settle in there was little difference between the rams in the two studs.
Kojonup farmers Bill, Trish and Matt Webb returned to buy two Gracefield sires paying the top price and the $1700 equal second top price for sires to use in a crossbreeding operation designed to take advantage of hybrid vigour to lift lambing percentages and growth rates.
Ms Webb said for the past six year they ran separate mobs of pure Merino and Prime SAMMs as well as a flock of 3000 F1 ewes joined to Poll Dorsets.
An important element in the operation was identifying ewes that produced twins saying lifting lambing percentage was always a high priority and they were now achieving well over 100 per cent.
"The rams we bought today were both very correct sheep and had good figures," Ms Webb said.
The top price sheep, a 21.8 micron ram, was not the heaviest in the line-up at 83.5 kilograms but had a big 41.1 millimetre eye muscle in relation to size and 6.5mm fat.
Elders auctioneer Travis Menghini told potential bidders the addition of Gracefield was a fantastic opportunity to get an outcross of genetics while still maintaining Rockdale's size and scale.
Just 14 rams carried the Rockdale prefix among the 107-ram offering and the 16 buyers had ample selection to clear 82 rams for a $929 average.
For studmaster Simon Kerin it was an encouraging result.
"We are pleased so many Gracefield clients have followed us here and given the imminent change many would have bought a few extra rams last year," Kerin said.
He said he was looking forward to next year and was confident the result would be stronger given the tendency for some buyers to have on 'off' year in their annual requirements.
For existing clients this year was a top buying opportunity with averages easing and one of which volume buyer Luke Hall, Halanson Farms, Wagin, took full advantage.
He bought 20 rams and although an existing Gracefield client for the past six years he also bought a few with Rockdale bloodlines.
He said they used the SAMMs in a crossbreeding program joining them to Merinos for several years then mating the offspring back to Merino sires to maintain wool quality but as far as weight gain Mr Hall said Prime SAMMs were unbeatable.
They normally carried their lambs through until January before selling.
Mr Hall paid up to $1300 but also picked up many rams for the $700 upset price,
Some of the other buyers were DM Cornish, Katanning, who bought the second $1700 equal second top price ram among his team of four; near neighbour NC Flugge & Co, bought 10 rams; Phil & Hella Crossley, Woodanilling, bought six; and WM & CM Robertson, Boyup Brook, paid up to $1500 for three to be another notable buyer.
