The Ditchburn family, Golden Hill stud, Kukerin, and the Cheetham family, Cheetara stud, South Kumminin, held a joint UltraWhite summer ram sale last week - the result of the two studs making a joint purchase of the Kingslane UltraWhite stud at Benger in late November.
The purpose of the sale was to sell the remaining late 2022-drop rams bred by the Kingslane stud, which were offered by the Golden Hill and Cheetara stud owners.
As a part of the joint purchase of the Benger-based stud, 55 quality Kingslane-bred rams were able to be offered in an UltraWhite summer ram sale which attracted plenty of interest from WA, Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales.
The sale attracted 15 WA bidders, as well as three interstate buyers from South Australia, NSW and Victoria, in which six active bidders collectively placed 91 bids throughout the 46 minute sale.
After the quality line-up raked in 1485 catalogue views, it resulted in 37 of the 55 rams offered on the AuctionsPlus platform selling to a top of $1500 and a $943 sale average.
Elders stud stock manager Tim Spicer said the results reflected current markets.
"Although it was a sale that was late in the season, it was a pleasing result to sell to a 67 per cent clearance," Mr Spicer said.
Earning top price honours was a well structured sire from pen 23, which was bought for $1500 by AWN wool and livestock State manager Greg Tilbrook on behalf of a WA producer.
The ram had Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) of -0.17 birthweight (BWT), 6.96 weaning weight (WWT), 10.12 post weaning weight (PWT), -1.82 shear force at 5 days (SF5), 2.43 post weaning eye muscle depth (PEMD), 0.98 post weaning fat depth (PFAT), 136.98 for terminal carcase production (TCP) index and a eating quality index (EQI) of 135.7.
Mr Tilbrook said the buyers selected the ram based on its ASBVs and breeding traits and were really happy with their purchase on the day.
Three buyers bid to the sale's second top price of $1300 for three rams.
The first ram, from pen two was picked up by a Dumbleyung buyer and had ASBVs of -0.08 BWT, 8.72 WWT, 12.23 PWT, -1.15 SF5, 1.66 PEMD, 0.63 PFAT, 139.94 for TCP index and a EQI of 137.51.
Nutrien Livestock Breeding representative Roy Addis bought on behalf of Kendenup's Nathan Skinner, which was the next to bid to $1300 for a pen five ram with ASBVs of -0.21 BWT, 5.81 WWT, 7.38 PWT, -2.29 SF5, 2.63 PEMD, 1.28 PFAT, 129.08 for TCP index and a EQI of 129.4.
The remaining $1300 was picked up by a Narrogin buyer, with ASBVs of -0.35 BWT, 7.28 WWT, 10.16 PWT, -0.84 SF5, 3.1 PEMD, 0.36 PFAT, 142.85 for TCP index and a EQI of 137.54.
A Tambellup producer came away as the volume buyer post-sale, successfully bidding on 17 at $800 each.
The TCP indexes ranged from 126.55 to 148.86, while the EQI index ranged from 124.95 to 146.86.
Continuing the buying streak for Mr Skinner was Mr Addis when he added six additional lots onto the Kendenup producers order, which including one of the $1300 top-priced rams took the total team to seven rams, which averaged $1100.
The seven head team included three well-rounded, third top price sires for $1200 from pen three, 26 and 27.
The three rams, in order, had TCP indexes of 136.94, 138.38 and 138.82 and EQI indexes of 134, 136.5 and 138.26, respectively.
