Buyers were welcomed by stylish, soft white wools in the Hall family's offering of quality Poll Merino sires at their final on-property Monte Verde ram sale at Kendenup recently.
Stan and Suzanne Hall, along with the Hall family, announced they have decided to hang up their boots after many hard-working, dedicated years of breeding and producing quality Merino and Poll Merino sires.
The sale, which was in its 28th year, saw loyal buyers return and support this year's sale and bid up on their catalogue favourites.
The offering consisted of 45 May-shorn, completely paddock-run grassfed rams that presented exceptionally well and resulted in 25 sires selling under the hammer to achieve an impressive average of $1010, considering last year 38 rams sold to an average of $1207.
Nutrien Livestock, Mt Barker agent and auctioneer Jarrad Hubbard said it was the end of an era for the Monte Verde stud.
"There were a lot of strong supporters over the years that have been purchasing from the stud for a long time and some were here today and purchased what will be their last rams," Mr Hubbard said.
"I'd like to thank the Hall family for their support since I've been here and Nutrien Livestock as a company, along with all the people who came and supported the sale today."
Mr Hubbard said it was a good sale result and the vendors were happy and content with the way it went considering the current market conditions.
Taking out the top price honours was a ram towards the end of the offering in pen 40 that started a bidding war, which was won by David Egerton-Warburton, DR & M Egerton-Warburton, Frankland River, when he bid to $2000.
The ram boasted wool figures of 19.6 micron, 4.5 SD, 22.7 CV, 73.7 per cent yield, a 4kg greasy fleece weight (GFW) and a 99.2pc comfort factor (CF).
Mr Egerton-Warburton said he had been buying from the stud since its first sale.
"I was selecting mainly on wool quality and quantity," Mr Egerton-Warburton said.
"For me, the wool's brightness is key.
"Structure and conformation also plays a big part."
The Frankland River buyer was also the volume buyer in the sale taking home 10 Poll Merino sires in total at an average of $1265.
Included in his purchases was the $1950 second top price sire that had wool figures of 18.5 micron, 3.2 SD, 17.1 CV, 74.8pc yield, 4.3kg GFW and a 99.5pc CF.
He continued to purchase the third highest priced ram at $1550 which had wool figures of 19.3 micron, 3.2 SD, 16.8 CV, 71.4pc yield, 4.4kg GFW and a 99.5pc CF.
Mr Egerton-Warburton plans to use his new sires over his 3000 Merino ewes that he runs at his property.
Grass Valley account, M Cooke & Sons, put together a team of six rams that averaged $900, which included an impressive woolled sire for $1400.
This ram from pen 43 had wool figures of 20.5 micron, 3.8 SD, 18.3 CV, 70.6pc yield, 4.9kg GFW and a 99.6pc CF.
Greenvale Grazing, Tenterden, loaded up five rams after the sale which they paid $800 each for.
The rams each had a CF of 98.9pc, 99.8pc, 99.8pc, 99.9pc and 99.5pc, respectively.
Another account, Jefferies Grazing, Tenterden, also bought four rams at $800 each.
Monte Verde stud co-principal Stan Hall said the family had decided to slow down a bit.
"We will still run our commercial sheep and still breed rams for ourselves, but just not have the stud," Mr Hall said.
"This way we won't have the pressure of having to get sheep up to standard for people to buy.
"We have been selling rams for just short of 30 years now and it is a very sad day for us.
"We would like to sincerely thank all of our clients for their support over the years, it means a lot to us."
