THE Hart family, Glen Devon studs, Two Wells, has a long and well-decorated history in the Poll Dorset breed, but they would have had very few sale days better than last week's on-property ram sale result.
They offered 100 Poll Dorset rams including nine specially selected sires and achieved a total clearance to a top of $2300 and at an outstanding $1087 average. This was up $64 on last year.
The feature of the draft was the evenness of the top-quality offering and this was reflected in the prices. There were probably fewer high prices at the front end of the catalogue this year, but the consistency of bidding matched the visual evenness of rams, and 79 per cent of the offering sold between $900 and $1200. Only four rams sold below $900 and these were all at $800.
The $2300 top was paid by Chris Skeer, through Chay and Merritt Millicent, for Glen Devon 130095, an April 2013-drop son of Valma 110420 that stood fourth in the pairs class at the recent Royal Adelaide Show feature breed showing.
Balanced in phenotype and genotype, this ram had a growth estimated breeding value of 13.1 and eye muscle EBV of 1.8, culminating in a Carcase Plus index of 190.2.
The nine specially selected rams averaged $1433 in a strong start to the sale.
It was another Valma 420 son that topped the flock ram sales at $1800. With slightly better figures than the sale topper he was snapped up by long-time Glen Devon supporter Neil Hamilton, Landmark Ouyen, Vic. This was one of three rams Neil bought and one of six purchased through account Landmark Ouyen.
Once again Vic Mallee buyers were very strong in their support for Glen Devon rams. Elders Ouyen, Vic, provided three buyers, selecting seven rams, but the biggest buying agent was BRC Ouyen's Rory Singleton. He took 15 for several clients, paying to $1300 and at the solid average of $1087.
But it was Kevin Collins and sons Steven and Ryan, buying through AWN Crookwell, NSW, who had the biggest impact on the overall result. They took 10 rams for their own account, plus 20 others including three from private selections immediately post sale, for other AWN Crookwell accounts. They averaged $963 at auction.
* Full report in Stock Journal, October 2, 2014 issue.