The on-property sale at Jerilderie NSW has realised the highest ever average for the One Oak stud. Read the full sale report here.
A ram with genuine sire appeal topped Friday’s One Oak Poll sale at $28,000, helping carry the Jerilderie-based Merino stud to a stud record auction average of $4061 a head.
Nicknamed “Alistair” after breeder Alistair Wells, the ram was second under the hammer in the 110-lot catalogue and sold to local commercial breeder Donald Bull of Irroy at Deniliquin.
The price matched last year’s top price for the stud.
Mr Bull said while it was the most money he had spent on a ram, he needed 20 replacement flock rams a year and the value was there in the longer-term.
Similar to many at the on-property sale, he was taken with the ram’s wool and the way it was carried on a very correct structure.
The ram was 20.2 micron and boasted a comfort factor figure of 99.5 and weighed 102kg liveweight.
“He suits our conditions perfectly and he just has a beautiful square barrel with lush wool,’’ Mr Bull said.
“We’ve been breeding our own rams for 20 years and while we’ve spent over what we have in the past, I thought why not have a crack. And 20 flock rams at an average of $3000 or $4000 costs a lot more than ($28,000).”
Noted sheep classer Michael Elmes said the ram was one out of the box.
“It’s bold and lustrous wool that you don’t see a lot of,’’ he said.
“He has got ram’s wool and for a stud sire to breed on you need that something extra and he has it.’’
Natasha Wells said they had retained a semen share of the ram and he would be used in their stud.
“Alistair didn’t want to sell him, we had a lot of conversations about it,’’ she said.
The sale opened strongly, with the first 20 rams consistently selling from $5000 to $10,0000.
The Pemcaw Merino stud at Dunedoo paid the second top price of $10,000 for a sire, while Western District producer David Lyons of Melville Park Hereford stud outlaid $8000.
Rams sold to buyers from a wide area, from southern Victoria to Queensland with several Merino studs battling it out against repeat commercial clients.
The result at the close of the auction was 96 of 110 rams sold for an average of $4061.
Post-sale a handful of passed-in rams were sold to take the figure to 100 rams sold at $3905.
The figure still exceeds last year’s result for One Oak, which was an average of $3885.
