THE welcoming atmosphere of the Hams family's shearing shed come ram sale day is the epitome of the Newdegate community.
Young families and kids galore, delicious food and friendly conversation - it's all there.
And while the weather was cold and windy outside, none of it detracted from the serious business of ram buying at Keetlen Valley Poll Merino stud's 17th annual on-property ram sale last Friday.
Stud principal Keith Hams, his wife Helen, sons Darren and Michael and their wives Rochelle and Davina penned 96 upstanding young sires for the taking - eight more than at the same time last year.
So you can imagine Mr Hams's joy when just three of the rams were passed in under the hammer (selling immediately after the sale) contributing to the auction's 93-strong clearance to an average price of $1571 - $41 higher than last year.
Last year's $3000 top price was also exceeded this year, with local farmer Beau Waddell and his daughter Sonia Harding, B & M Waddell, doing some hard and fast bidding to secure the lot 15 ram for $3200.
Just one of the 18 registered bidders left the shed without any rams, so the competition to get the top-priced lot locked down was stiff for the Waddell family - four other bidders were vying for the honours.
The hotly contested ram weighed 99 kilograms (83kg at 11 months old) and had wool figures of 18.9 micron, 2.8 SD, 15.0 CV, 66.0 yield, 99.9 per cent comfort factor and 17.5 spin fine (SF).
It was one of five rams bought from the first half of the catalogue by the family for a $2560 average.
Alongside his cattle and crop growing feats, Mr Waddell runs 2100 self-replacing Merino ewes each season.
For the first time he bought six flock rams from last year's Keetlen Valley catalogue and was impressed with their performance in the new season.
"We got a few more this year to work with last year's rams - we're planning to mate a mob of ewes to Keetlen Valley sires to really test their performance against our existing bloodlines," Mr Waddell said.
"We look for good early growth rates and a long bright white staple to complement our existing ewe flock's 20-21 micron average."
The second top-priced sire was found in pen 33, weighing 113kg (83kg at 11 months old) with wool figures of 20.8 micron, 3.5 SD, 16.6 CV, 79.4 yield, 99.6pc CF and 19.6 SF.
It was bought by long-time client and friend Robert Newman, RG Newman, Newdegate, for $3000.
All the usual buyers were there, with Ray and Leon Squibb, RJ & AM Squibb, Tambellup and Kingsley and Scott Strevett, KH and A Strevett, Lake Grace, securing themselves teams of 10 rams each in the volume buying stakes for a top of $1900 and average of $1260 and top of $2600 and average of $1795 respectively.
Peter and Rocky Walker, Wattledale Estate, Newdegate, procured a team of nine for an average of $1889 while Corackerup Farms, Ongerup, PW & TA Ness, Newdegate (at a $1525 average) and DE & J Davies ($1162 average), Lake Varley, bought eight apiece.
Nine other buyers cleared a total of 28 rams between them.
Mr Hams said he was rapt with the sale especially given he put up extra numbers and was well rewarded by his loyal clients.
"We had one new client represented today which is always nice," he said.
"The sheep industry is healthy at the moment and its showing in all the sales.
"Our two main sires are of Yarrum Valley bloodlines with a small Coromandel infusion - they're performing extremely well at the moment and are fathering some outstanding young rams.
"We've had a great season which means the wools are even better than normal this year.
"The sale team yields were up a couple of per cent on average and the fleeces are whiter and brighter than ever."
Landmark Katanning livestock agent and sale auctioneer Mark Warren said Keetlen Valley put up another great line-up of rams showing good length of body and size with excellent wool quality and cut.
"There's good nourishment in these rams and it shows given the number of loyal clients returning for a piece of the action each year," he said.