TOP price and clearance rate were down slightly on last year, but in every other aspect Fern Park Poll Merino onfarm ram sale was well ahead.
The large-framed, early-maturing, fertile Fern Park rams have loyal supporters who return year-after-year, with most of the 11 buyers well known to the stud and with six of them taking eight or more rams each back to the farm.
Bryce Sinclair, BP Sinclair, East Newdegate, who runs 5500 ewes with his parents Dean and Rosina, DP & RM Sinclair, Varley, was typical of them, buying the top-priced ram for the second year running.
This year he paid a top of $2350, which was $150 less than last year's top ram cost him - and the top ram this year was among a string of nine he purchased at an average of $1416.
Last year he bought four at an average of $1550.
The top-priced ram had specifications from wool tests conducted less than two weeks before the sale of 21.4 microns fibre diameter (FD), standard deviation (SD) of 2.9 microns, a coefficient of variation (CV) of 13.6 per cent and a comfort factor (CF) of 99.7pc.
Fern Park bloodlines have worked well for Mr Sinclair.
As reported in Farm Weekly, he recently won the State Ewe Hogget Competition, held as part of the Newdegate Machinery Field Days, also for the second year running, with another pen of 10 Fern Park ram-sired ewes.
"We would have been here (buying Fern Park rams) close to a dozen years now," Mr Sinclair said.
"They're good value rams for what we are getting.
"They sire early-maturing size lambs, but the ewes hold onto their lambs for a long time as well, so you can get the weight into them without being too rushed."
Mr Sinclair inadvertently caused the Dyson Jones Wool Marketing Services sale team Newdegate and Wickepin representative Andrew Kitto, Kulin representative Sam Howie and director John Stothard some angst by not turning up until the sale was about to start.
He explained he had stopped on the way to help a woman who slipped over on gravel when she got out of her car to look at wildflowers.
"I'm always running late anyway, I thought I'd take a short cut for the first time, but it ended up taking longer because I stopped to help the woman," Mr Sinclair said.
Andrew Grieve, Fairholme Holdings, Cuballing, was also a quality buyer, taking the lot one second top-priced ram at $2200 in his eight rams at an average of $1506.
It had specifications of 20.9 microns FD, 3.5 microns SD, 16.7pc CV and 99.3pc CF.
"We've been buying here for quite a while, they're a good honest bloodline, they have good traits and they lamb well - the lambing percentage is going up - and they produce good bright wool," Mr Grieve said.
He said the Fairholme Holdings enterprise normally mates 2500 Merino ewes but this year might lift that number to 3000 because feed was available and rising costs of fertiliser and chemical inputs made profitable returns from cropping less certain.
Volume buyers with 10 rams each were Simon Newman, Linton Park Farms, Cuballing, who bought to a top of $1700, with two at $1600, for an average of $1075 and Shorer & Sons, Jitarning, who bought to a top of $1500 at an average of $1135.
Repeat buyer Sam Shorer said his family liked the Fern Park "plain body, big body, clean bright wool and high lambing percentages".
They mate 1500 ewes but had changed their ram selection criteria slightly.
"Some of our older ones (rams) didn't fit the mark, so we had to buy a few more this year," he said.
An absent, unnamed buyer with Mr Stothard bidding on their behalf and Patten Trading Group, Popanyinning, were the main value buyers, taking nine sheep each at averages of $533 and $633 respectively.
Alan Yandle, JF Yandle, Narembeen, bought six rams at an average of $1358 and David King & Son, Kulin, also bought six, but at an average of $833.
RP Bushby, Lake Grace, bought four rams at an average of $575.
AWN auctioneer Don Morgan passed in five rams that failed to get a bid at the reserve price, but the sale generated $4350 more than last year.
Stud principal Kevin Pauley said he was "very happy" with the result.
"It's been a wonderful year and many people are surprised it's been an even better year than last year," Mr Pauley said.
"I know we were surprised when we did the wool tests at just how long the wool staple length was - but that's the plan, you want your wool to go out on a semi-trailer, not a ute."
Mr Pauley said he was pleased with how the May-June drop, mid-May shorn sale team had presented.
Mr Kitto agreed.
"The rams were probably a little bit more even than last year and there were a couple of new buyers - it was a pretty good result all round I thought," Mr Kitto said.
"There were also a couple of interested onlookers attending who used to buy from Fern Park and came back this year to have a look."
