SALE SUMMARY
2017 2016
Offered 62 47
Sold 61 29
Top $2100 $1000
Av $839 $576
A NEAR total clearance at Sunnybrae SAMMs ram sale on Tuesday left stud principal Peter Fielding grinning from ear-to-ear.
Sixty one of 62 SAMM and Border Leicester-SAMM rams were sold at Yongala, with Lot 3 – a SAMM ram that Mr Fielding had a soft spot for – the only one to be passed in.
In the breakdown, 41 from 42 SAMM’s were sold averaging $888 while all 19 Border Leicester-SAMM’s sold averaging $731.
He set a high reserve with the intention to retain the ram within his flock if it did not hit the figure.
The sale also had a strong increase in average to $839.
Repeat buyer Stephen McKeogh, Dawson via Peterborough paid the sale top of $2100 for a 14-month-old, 20.4 micron SAMM ram.
“I was impressed with the wool characteristics and the style of wool, that’s what drew me towards it, plus the body and the muscle traits,” he said.
“It was a good all-round animal.”
The Royston-sired, 110.5-kilogram ram had good wool tests including a 17.7 per cent coefficient of variation, a 3.6 standard deviation and a comfort factor of 99pc.
Mr McKeogh, who has been buying for the past decade, went home with two rams for a $2050 average.
The sale was the sixth annual SAMM on-property auction for Sunnybrae stud and Mr Fielding said their breeding involved producing thick bodied rams, trying to improve the sheep’s wool.
The top price Border Leicester-SAMM ram was bought by PG&KM Crosby, Cleve, for $900.
The ram, sired by a Glencorrie Border Leicester, weighed 100kg, with an eye muscle depth of 42.3 millimetres and a fat depth of 6.6mm.
Mr Fielding increased the number of Border Leicester-SAMM rams on offer and said he will do so again in 2018.
“I’ve mainly been breeding the Border Leicester crosses to take to the Naracoorte blue ribbon sale,” he said.
“Last year I decided to keep a dozen or so and had fantastic reports and this year I kept a few more.
“I’ll have to keep twice as many again next year.”
Many return buyers were at the sale along with plenty of new faces from across SA, including Kangaroo Island, Eyre Peninsula, the Riverland and Murraylands.
Volume buyers included Wardle&Co, Crystal Brook, who bought seven rams for a $692 average and Angle Grove Trading Trust, Brinkworth, also bought six rams for a $950 average.
PR Proctor, Lock, took home seven rams averaging $1128 while Simon Fahye, Bow Hill, took six averaging $658.
Elders Jamestown conducted the sale with Scott Fleetwood as the auctioneer.