THE third annual BreedersBEST Genetics on-property sale at Kojonup last week was another roaring success for the Heggaton family.
With strong support from return buyers and new clients, prices hit a high of $3500 twice for Kojak sires, while the large catalogue of Poll Dorset rams topped at $3200.
All up the Heggaton family offered 339 Poll Dorset, White Suffolk, Kojak and Prolific sires and cleared 298 at a clearance rate of 88 per cent and an average of $1335, which was up $181 on last year.
In comparison in last year's sale the family offered 319 sires and sold 303 for an average of $1154.
In a marathon effort selling 341 rams, Elders auctioneer Preston Clarke said that the rams were extremely well presented and were all there based on their commercial performance attributes which was the number one breeding objective for the Heggaton family.
"There is a specific purpose for all these rams and given the sale result they are clearly doing their job in the flocks of WA," he said.
p Sherwood Poll Dorsets
The offering of 106 Poll Dorset rams met with strong competition, with all but three selling under the hammer to a top of $3200 and an average of $1277 (up $317).
The top price came in the first run of rams, when lot eight stole the show selling to $3200 to client of three years Glancy & Sons Trust, Bridgetown.
The ram was a May 2015 drop twin and registered one of the best set of ASBV figures in the Poll Dorset catalogue.
Its PEMD was the third highest recorded for the Poll Dorset offering, coming in at 3.1, while its CarcasePlus index of 223.4 was also a curve bender.
Its other ASBVs were also high up in ranking with 0.46 BWT, 11 WWT, 16.8 PWWT, and -0.1 PFAT.
Buyer Eddie Glancy said the ram will be used in their nucleus flock of purebred Poll Dorset ewes.
"We breed our own rams from a select group of ewes," he said.
"He's a nice clean ram, very sirey, he has very good figures and is also a twin which made him pretty hard to go past."
The next best price of $2200 was paid by three separate buyers.
Paying that amount twice was O'Keefe Farming, Gnowangerup.
The O'Keefe account was regularly called out by the selling team, taking home eight rams in total.
The two rams bought at $2200 registered ASBVs of 0.66 BWT, 9.8 WWT, 14.5 PWWT, -0.9 PFAT, 2.4 PEMD and 211.8 CarcasePlus and 0.57 BWT, 10.2 WWT, 15.2 PWWT, -0.7 PFAT, 1.0 PEMD and 198.1 CarcasePlus respectively.
Third year clients of the Sherwood stud, John and Jack South, Knack, Darkan, were also active taking eight Poll Dorset rams home.
Their $2200 top price ram registered a 0.4 BWT, 9.8 WWT, 15.6 PWWT, -0.9 PFAT, 2.4 PEMD and 208.3 CarcasePlus.
The fourth ram to go at $2200 was bought by VC Pascoe & Co, Arthur River.
This ram had ASBVs of 0.55 BWT, 12.2 WWT, 18.8 PWWT, -1.3 PFAT, 1.8 PEMD and a very good 220 CarcasePlus index.
This was the only purchase the Pascoes made in the Poll Dorset offering.
Other volume buyers included Benbrook Grazing, Boyup Brook, which took seven to a top of $2100 and Denabling Grazing Co, Narrogin, which also bought seven rams to a top of $1600.
RD Young, Jerramungup, was also active buying eight rams at auction to a top of $1500.
p Ashbourne White Suffolks
While the Poll Dorsets kicked off proceedings, the offering was interspersed with the offering of 57 White Suffolk rams from the Ashbourne stud.
Buyers weren't as competitive on this breed as the Poll Dorsets, and consequently 17 of the rams were passed in.
For the 40 that sold, they topped at $2300 and averaged $1188.
The top-priced ram was found in lot 26 and its length and shape prompted buyers to sit up and take notice.
The successful bidder was eventually local operation, Slab Hut Grazing in its only purchase of the day.
The April 2015 drop ram had ASBVs of 0.49 BWT, 9.5 WWT, 15.9 PWWT, -0.7 PFAT, 1.0 PEMD and 192 CarcasePlus.
Second top price in this section of the catalogue was $2200 paid by RH & LM Rose, Bridgetown.
This ram had ASBVs of 0.49 BWT, 10 WWT, 17 PWT, 0.0 PFAT, 2 EMD and was 205.9 for CarcasePlus.
Two rams went at $2000 with Landmark Breeding paying that for lot one and DI, IJ & ME Muir, Boyup Brook, taking the other one.
The volume buyer honour was shared between two buyers with RF & MR Bilney, Kojonup and Yarrawee, Gnowangerup, buying five rams apiece.
p Kojak
The atmosphere in the shed stepped up a notch when the selling team stood over the first run of Kojak rams, with the first three offered selling over the $3000 mark.
Bidding was slightly subdued for the next five rams, but when it came to the ninth ram offered it peaked again to see the top price for this breed set at $3500.
Local grower and repeat buyer Will Harvey was largely responsible for the lift in tempo, going to $3500 to secure this ram. Just when everyone thought that may be it, Mr Harvey struck again six lots later to pay $3500 for another ram.
He was also the successful bidder on lot one ($3000), lot two ($3100) and lot three ($3300).
The first top price ram was ET bred and had a 34kg WWT, a 57kg PWWT, a 27.3mm EMD, a 3.5mm fat depth and growth rate of 302.6 grams a day.
The other top-priced ram weighed in at 37kg WWT, had a PWWT of 64kg, a EMD depth of 31.3mm, a fat depth of 3.8mm and a large growth rate of 355.3 grams a day.
Buoyed by some terrific sale results from Kojak progeny in the past year, Mr Harvey was happy to keep throwing in bids to get the rams he wanted.
He took home 14 rams in total at an average of $2386.
The Harveys now have a 10,000 head flock of totally shedding ewes over which they use Kojak and UltraWhite rams and they have been extremely pleased with the results they have achieved.
"Because they have excellent carcase attributes and good growth, we are able sell our lambs straight off the mothers," he said.
"Pretty much all our lambs are gone by December and we got $5.20/kg right across the lot including the smaller ones with about 30kg dressed weight for the bigger lambs and 16kg dressed weight for the smaller ones which went air freight.
"We are very pleased."
G & N Thorn, Kojonup, also impacted the sale buying five rams to a $3200 top.
This ram measured 37kg WWT, 59kg PWWT, 27.2mm EMD depth, 1.9mm fat depth and 289.5g/day.
Two other volume buyers Croptimistic Operations, Esperance and GS Martin, Wickepin, both bought seven rams.
Croptimistic paid to a top of $1500 for its team, while the Martins went to $1300.
JW & SD Knipe, Northam, bought six rams in total, paying higher prices of $2700 and $2500 within its selections.
p Prolific
There was nearly a full clearance of the Prolific rams, with only five of the 80 offered passed in at auction.
The top price for the Prolifics was $2500 paid later in the catalogue by the Souths, Knack, Darkan.
The Souths paid that money for a ram that measured 32.5kg WWT, 55kg PWWT, 335.8g/day, 27.5mm EMD depth, 3.5mm fat depth, 21.7 micron, 80.4pc yield.
This ram was one of five purchased by the Souths, with them also paying $2100 for a ram with measurements of 30.5kg WWT, 54.5kg PWWT, 358.2g/day growth rate, 28.8mm EMD depth, 2.7mm fat depth, 24.7 micron and 78.9pc yield.
Clients of three years, John and Jack South use the Prolifics over Merino ewes and keep the first cross progeny.
"We retain a line of the first cross ewes and then put Poll Dorset over those," Jack said.
"The aim is to get our lambing percentage up which the Prolific influence helps and we still get that good carcase growth rate as well as lower micron wool."
The Souths have have a ewe flock of 10,500 head of which 3500 are first cross Prolific ewes and the rest are straight Merino, as well as Kojak cross ewes which are also by the Heggaton's breeding stock.
The second top price in this section was $2400 paid twice.
The first instance it was paid by TW & FL Mead, Dinninup. The Meads bought three Prolifics in total, paying $2100 and $1300 for the other two.
Also paying $2400 were T & H Altham, Pingrup. As well as sharing top price honours, the Althams were also the volume buyers of Prolifics and bought 11 rams in total.
Paying $2100 was O'Keefe Farming, Gnowangerup, for the first Prolific ram offered.
M Madew, Gingin, was another buyer who had an impact on the Prolific catalogue taking home 10 rams in total, while Denabling Grazing, Narrogin, bought eight.
