A FOCUS on breeding quality woolled Poll Merinos with plenty of body shape and weight paid off for the Edward family's Belmont Park Poll Merino stud at Wagin earlier this month, when buyers pushed prices to a high of $11,000 at the stud's on-property ram sale.
The stud presented a quality line-up of 90 Poll Merino rams that expressed excellent wool and carcase traits which were backed up by good MerinoSelect Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) and buyers certainly appreciated it, bidding strongly throughout.
With good competition throughout the catalogue Nutrien Livestock auctioneer Michael Altus had no problems finding new homes for the 90 rams offered.
By the end of the sale he had sold 87 of them under the hammer to 19 different buyers at an average of $1769, which was up $211 on last year.
In comparison, in last year's sale the stud sold 83 rams from 97 offered at an average of $1558 and to a top of $6000.
Nutrien Livestock Wagin agent Peter Foley said once again the rams presented very well and continued to improve each year.
"The Edward family's strong AI program and their recent implementation of ASBVs is having an impact on both the rams presented in the sale and the results the stud is achieving," Mr Foley said.
"We are educating the clients in regards to the ASBVs with the help of Mike Kirk from Rural Data Management and this year the stud's ASBVs improved by 20 per cent compared to last year.
"The clients are now starting to recognise the value of the ASBVs when it comes to selecting their rams which is a good reward for the stud.
"The sale was well supported by long-standing clients and also a couple of new ones throughout and it was also pleasing to see that there was again stud interest in the sale as that means the stud is making progress.
"It was a solid sale throughout with buyers being able to buy rams at their respective budgets."
The sale got off to a flying start when Mr Altus offered up an upstanding sire in lot one.
He took an opening bid of $4000 on the long-stapled, big barrelled ram and from there the price rose quickly and surpassed the five figure mark as it became a tussle between two buyers.
Eventually it was first-time buyer at the stud Tahryn Trevenen, High Valley stud, Tarin Rock, to prevail with the final bid at $11,000.
Ms Trevenen, who farms with her husband Damian and brothers Ashton and Kael Gray, said their commercial flock classer Lachie Thornton first picked the ram out at the Narrogin Long Wool Day and then pointed it out to her at the Rabobank WA Sheep Expo & Ram Sale at Katanning.
"Our stud classer Mitch Hogg also looked at him at Katanning and confirmed he was a good ram," Ms Trevenen said.
"I really like the thickness he has in his wool and he also has stylish sire's wool.
"He also is well-structured, is good on his feet and has a good behind."
"This is the first time we have purchased a Poll sire and we are going to use him as a bit of a trial into breeding Polls."
The 103.5 kilogram, March shorn, shed-prepared ram is by Nepowie 180004 and it had autumn wool tests of 19 micron, 4.0 SD, 21.1 CV and 99.1pc CF to go with carcase scans of 33.7mm eye muscle depth (EMD) and 5.8mm fat at the end of August.
On the ASBVs front it ranks in the top 10pc of rams on MerinoSelect for yearling clean fleece weight (YCFW) with a figure of 31.64 and yearling weight (YWT) with a figure of 11.63 while it dual purpose plus (DP+) index is in the top 20pc at 173.3.
Ms Trevenen said the ram would be used over DNA-tested PH ewes from their stud flock.
Along with securing the top-priced ram Ms Trevenen, who was chasing the Nepowie 180004 bloodline, purchased another son at $3000 which ranked in the top 20pc for YCFW and YWT.
Losing bidder on the top-priced ram was client of close to 50 years Viv Giles and her son Doug.
After missing out on lot one the pair ended up securing two rams in the sale at $3000 and $2000.
They paid $3000 for a 103kg East Bungaree Trey son, which had a DP+ index of 147.7 and Merino Production Plus (MP+) index of 142.6.
Mr Giles said they liked the Belmont Park bloodline because the body shape and wool style of the stud's rams matched what they were trying to breed.
The Giles' flock averages 18 to 18.5 micron and their mature ewes cut seven kilograms of wool.
In terms of lambing this year, they had their best one in five to six years on the back of a better season.
They averaged a 97pc lambing (unscanned) to ewes joined with some mobs going up to 116pc.
Mr Giles said this year they were looking to mate 3500 ewes, all to Merinos, as they had moved away from using terminal sires as they could get equally rewarded for their Merino wether lambs.
Already this year the Giles have sold 50pc of their wether lambs to processors, which were dropped in March and early April, straight off mum at the end of August averaging 23 to 24kg carcase weight.
The second top price in the sale was $3300 and it was bid by return buyer Geoff Abbott, GA & WM Abbott, Wagin, for a 101kg East Bungaree Trey son which had ASBVs of 22.87 YCFW, -0.67 yearling fibre diameter (YFD), 7.57 YWT, 0.06 yearling fat (YFAT), 0.86 yearling eye muscle depth (YEMD) and indexes of 149.8 MP+ and 156.7 DP+.
Along with this ram Mr Abbott purchased another two to finish with a team of three at a $2850 average.
Buyers since the stud's first sale and even prior to that the Gillett family, Gillett Bros, Williams, was a strong supporter of the sale, and at the top end they purchased six rams to a top of $3250 and an average of $2225.
The Gilletts paid $3250 for a Boonoke Poll 170759 son which ranks in the top 10pc for YCFW and the MP+ index plus top 20pc for YWT and the DP+ index.
Buyer John Gillett remembers going to the stud and buying with his father and grandfather before the stud had auctions, when buyers used to have to get in the pens and grab the rams they wanted when a bell sounded before anyone else.
Mr Gillett said the Belmont Park sheep were good honest sheep with good fertility.
This year the Gilletts will join 2500 ewes to Merinos and 2500 Merino ewes to terminal sires.
Other strong buyers at the top end were Mr Foley who purchased for his own family's operation, PJ & SM Foley, Wagin and KR Rowell & Co, Wagin.
Mr Foley, who has been buying from the stud for more than 10 years, purchased nine rams at an average of $1889 and to a top of $2800.
He said he was chasing rams that had good YWT, YFAT and YEMD figures.
"The stud has good wools and now they are concentrating on the meat side which continues to improve each year and is what I want for my flock," Mr Foley said.
The Rowell family, which has been on the bloodline for more than 20 years, went home with six rams to a top of $2000 and an average of $1658.
A new buyer to the sale this year was Stuart Moyses, Moyses & Co, Narrogin, who was chasing early maturing types with a good YWT figure as he wants go to the next step with his sheep in terms of early growth.
Mr Moyses with the help of Nutrien Livestock Breeding representative Mitchell Crosby purchased nine rams to a top of $2100 and an average of $1756.
Mr Crosby didn't only help Mr Moyses with his buying, he also carried an order for an undisclosed buyer and finished the sale with a team of 12 rams for this client to a top of $3200 and an average of $1000.
Also bidding in the sale were repeat buyers AM & GA Gath, Cuballing, averaging $1400 over a team of seven that topped at $1900, while BL & JH Kilpatrick, Wagin averaged $1825 over a team of four and M Treloar & Co, Kukerin, averaged $1575 also over a team of four.
