SALE SUMMARY
2017 2016
Offered 160 160
Sold 160 160
Top $8000 $6000
Av $2108 $1925
STRONG bidding from commercial and stud clients helped the North Ashrose stud, Gulnare, achieve full clearance of 160 Poll Merino and Merino rams and a $2108 average on Wednesday last week.
The average was $183 up on last year’s sale.
Making the top price was a Poll Merino weighing 109 kilograms, with a 39.6-millimetre eye muscle depth, 7mm fat depth and it measured 137.7 on the 7 per cent Dual Purpose Index.
Its fleece was 20.5 micron, with 2.6 standard deviation, 12.6 coefficient of variation and 100pc comfort factor. The ram also had a greasy fleece weight percentage of 165pc.
The sire was knocked down to James, Alex and Eddie Morgan, Mutooroo Pastoral Company, Cockburn.
James said the top price ram, along with two other Poll Merinos bought for $4800 and $4600, would go into their Mutooroo Poll Merino stud.
He said the $8000 sheep impressed because of its scale, wool production and correctness.
“Its body weight and fleece weight is well above average, and it fits all our criteria,” he said.
The Morgans have been buying from North Ashrose for more than a decade.
“I keep returning because of the rams’ wool quality, their doing-ability and their structure,” James said.
The Morgans bought three other Poll Merinos to $3000, averaging of $2733, for their Outalpa Station at Olary.
There were plenty of interstate bidders, including Bangate Station, Walgett, NSW, with 12 rams to $2400, averaging $1891, and Lemon Grove Poll Merino stud, Nyngan, NSW, with 12 rams to $3600, averaging $2066.
Regular buyer RN Robinson, Jamestown, bought six rams to $2400, averaging $1833, and another long-term client HG Thompson & Son, Minlaton, took two rams to $5000, averaging $3700.
Volume buyers were Minburra Station, Orroroo, with 14 rams to $1600, averaging $1378; Therlow Downs Station, Bourke, NSW, 26 rams at $1200; Wadnaminga Station, Mannahill, 14 rams to $2800, averaging $1850; and WH Lines & Co, 14 rams to $3800, averaging $2728.
Hyde Pastoral, Port Lincoln, which has sold wool for 1610 cents/kg in the past few months, bought seven rams to $3200, averaging $2114.
Another regular Eyre Peninsula client Blacker Partners, Cummins, bought the highest price Merino at $4800. The ram weighed 110kg, with 40EMD and 6mm fat. Its fleece measured 18M, 3.2SD, 17.9CV and 99.6CF.
The same buyer bought another two Merinos at $3600 and $2200.
Sharing the auctioneering duties were Landmark stud stock manager Gordon Wood, Elders stud stock agent Tom Penna and Elders Jamestown territory sales manager Scott Fleetwood.
Mr Penna said the sale attracted a lot of long-term clients, some who had been buying from North Ashrose for generations.
“These long-term buyers are reinvesting their really good returns into their ram purchases, which lifted North Ashrose’s average price accordingly,” he said.
Mr Wood said North Ashrose rams were suited to a range of environments.
“North Ashrose produces wool-producing, big carcase sheep that have natural doing-ability, which see them thrive in high rainfall zones through to pastoral areas,” he said.
Stud principal Tom Ashby was pleased with the sale result.
“It shows the confidence in the sheep and wool industry at the moment,” he said.
“The market is very strong, and the sale result shows people’s commitment to the industry.”
