AN impressive line-up of quality Prime SAMM, White Suffolk and White Dorper Composite rams were presented to buyers at the Royston stud's 17th annual on-property ram sale at Napier last week.
Buyers were welcomed by the friendly hospitality from the Forbes family and the Royston team, as well as well-rounded white woolled Prime SAMM rams, well-muscled White Suffolk sires and the debut of a very well-bred, even line of White Suffolk-White Dorper Composite rams, all of which have some of the best Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) to back them up.
The catalogue attracted local interest, as well as eager bidders from the South Coast, Bremer Bay and interstate, with livestock agents operating for a New South Wales account.
The sale, overall, saw 67 rams sell under the hammer from the 100 offered to an average of $1033.
Broken down, 46 of the 50 Prime SAMMs sold to an average of $1176, followed by 15 of the 40 White Suffolk sires clearing to an average of $680 and six of the 10 White Suffolk-White Dorper Composites selling to an average of $817.
The White Suffolk-White Dorper Composite rams offered in the sale for the first time this year were bred from a well tempered and good shedding sire purchased from the Red Rock White Dorper stud, South Australia, at the Australian Sheep & Wool Show at Bendigo, Victoria, in 2018.
The Forbes family then put the sire over bare point White Suffolk ewes to produce offspring that have a great blend of hybrid vigour.
Elders auctioneer Graeme Curry said there was an educated list of local and Eastern States buyers who appreciated the quality of the rams and the long-standing LambPlan figures that the Royston Prime SAMM rams had in particular.
"The two top-priced rams were very good sires and there was consistent demand through the Prime SAMM offering," Mr Curry said.
"The White Suffolks were of good frame, well-muscled and structurally sound, but unfortunately local demand was just not there and we struggled to sell numbers throughout the catalogue."
First up to sell was the Prime SAMM offering, which saw a sire in pen three take out top price honours, with Elders, Mt Barker representative Dean Wallinger paying $3500 on behalf of New South Wales buyers, NP & KA Linden.
The top-priced ram was sired by a ram which is part of the Sheep Genetics Australia information nucleus flock.
The upstanding ram measured 22 micron in the wool and had ASBVs of 4.1 weaning weight (WWT), 4.8 post weaning weight (PWWT), 0.1post weaning fat (PFAT), 1.2 post weaning eye muscle depth (PEMD), 5.5 yearling weight (YWT) and a maternal wool production plus (MWP+) index of 138.
Mr Wallinger picked up the second top price ram in the sale for $2600, which will also head interstate to the Linden family.
This ram measured 20.7 micron in the wool and had ASBVs of 4.5 WWT, 5.6 PWWT, 0.2 PFAT, 1.1 PEMD, 6.1 YWT and a MWP+ index of 137.
Mr Wallinger said the Linden family are commercial breeders and like the Royston stud genetics.
"They were selecting mainly on the ram's wool and structure," Mr Wallinger said.
"They purchased the rams to put over their Prime SAMM ewes to breed replacement ewes from."
Peniup Views, Jerramungup, also bid strongly on its catalogue favourite which was a Prime SAMM ram in pen nine that carried a 20.5 micron fleece and had ASBVs of 2.9 WWT, 4.8 PWWT, 0.3 PFAT, 0.8 PEMD, 6.4 YWT and an MWP+ index of 141.
The Jerramungup account secured a team of seven rams in the sale in total for an average of $1586.
Three rams in the Prime SAMM offering made $1600.
Tambellup-based NI Thorn purchased two of these rams and they had MWP+ indexes of 138 and 136.
The other buyer to go to $1600 was Woolark Pastoral, Woogenellup and at this value they secured a ram with an MWP+ index of 132.
Woolark Pastoral managed to purchase another six Prime SAMM rams during the sale to load up seven rams at an average of $1186.
Volume buyers in the Prime SAMM run were local Mt Barker buyer PR Adams, securing 13 rams to an average of $700.
Next up was the White Suffolk offering which reached a high of $800.
The $800 ram was picked up by Mr Wallinger, this time acting on behalf of his client, Beauvalley Farming, Kendenup.
The June 2022-drop ram weighed 106kg and had raw figures of 84.5kg for post weaning weight, 38.5mm eye muscle depth and 3mm fat when scanned post weaning.
Mr Wallinger purchased another three rams for the Kendenup account to see a total of four clerked to it at an average of $625.
The Bessell-Browne family, PC & WE Bessell-Browne, Katanning, was a big fan of the White Suffolk rams, taking home nine to average $700.
The new offering of the White Suffolk-White Dorper Composites were the last to be presented.
Five of the six sires sold in this run were knocked down to BA & RN Ravenhill, Albany.
The Ravenhill family paid an average of $820 for a quality team of five rams and a high of $900, which was the top price in the run.
The $900 top-priced sire weighed 110kg and had raw figures of 84kg post weaning weight, a 41mm EMD and a 3.4mm fat at post weaning.
The remaining ram in the White Suffolk-White Dorper line-up was purchased for $800 by AR & RD Williams, Robinson.
This ram weighed in at 103kg and had raw figures of 79kg post weaning weight, to go with post weaning scans of 40mm EMD and 3.6mm fat.
Royston stud co-principal Sandy Forbes was pleased with the sale result given current livestock markets.
"We were grateful to have support from our long-term buyers, we appreciate their confidence in how our rams perform commercially, given they are top LambPlan sires," Ms Forbes said.
"We were pleased with our White Suffolk line-up, but we just lacked buyer support in that run of the sale.
"We also would like to thank the Elders team for their support throughout the year, and on sale day."
