SALE SUMMARY
2017 2016
Offered 126 104
Sold 98 89
Top $1500 $1650
Av $697 $698
A LARGE pastoral order from northern SA underpinned the success of Nonning White Dorper stud’s eighth annual sale at Kilmory, Woolumbool, on Friday.
Repeat buyers, the Nutt family, Pandurra Pastoral via Port Augusta, snapped up more than two-thirds of the main offering, often buying both rams in the pick of the pair sale format.
They were looking for rams with plenty of frame and good shedding traits for their Coondambo Station.
They have been running White Dorpers there for the past three years and bought 122 rams in total.
Nonning’s 2017 sale result mirrored 2016’s average.
The McTaggart family sold 98 of 126 rams offered in the main auction for a $697 average.
Another 30 rams sold in a mini auction.
These also proved great value for money, largely making $400-$450.
The sale’s $1500 top price was paid for lot 26 – a 13-month-old clean shedder weighing 85 kilograms, with a Carcase Plus Index of 141.76.
It was knocked down to Jared Burke and son Blaine, Barneys Lake, via Ivanhoe, NSW, who also paid the top price in 2016.
They were looking for good weight for age and structure.
“Our lambing percentages are at new highs and we are getting better weaning weights,” Jared said.
“This is the season they will come into their own – we have only had 50 millimetres of rain since November.”
The Burkes from Bargunyah Pastoral bought 11 rams in the main auction, averaging $973.
All five registered bidders went home with rams.
Other multiple buyers included eight to AW Go Organics, Fairview, Woolumbool, averaging $875, and eight to GJ Baker, Port Augusta, between $600 and $800.
The passed-in rams were not available after the sale, going straight into Nonning Station’s commercial operation in the Gawler Ranges, which produces certified organic lamb.
“They have as good a carcase as any other prime lamb breed and are so well adapted to the bush,” Nonning stud principal Angus McTaggart said.
Elders Naracoorte conducted the sale, with Tom Dennis the auctioneer.
He said repeat buyers were getting good results with the Nonning bloodlines.
“We have seen a consolidation of bigger holdings with self-replacing White Dorper flocks,” he said.
“They are looking for large volumes and Nonning is able to produce them because of its scale, including 32,000 ewes at Nonning Port Augusta.”
Mr Dennis said the rams had presented well considering the wet South East season, but some sheep were later shedding.
“It is a fundamental belief of Nonning that the rams are presented unshorn and untrimmed so buyers can see them as they are,” he said.
“They are no nonsense, no frills sheep.”
