Mid North Poll Merino stud, Hamilton Run, has achieved one of the sales of the the SA ram selling season with a heavy-cutting stud reserve fetching $20,000.
HR724 appealed to Vic buyer Roger Marsh, Avonmore Merinos, Elmore who had bought 12 ewes at Hamilton Run's nucleus flock reduction sale in May.
They recently lambed down at 170 per cent, adding to Mr Marsh's confidence in the Jamestown-based stud's breeding program.
Mr Marsh asked several Mid North studs to send videos and information of their star lots.
He says HR724 - which still has its lamb's teeth - was the one that "ticked all the boxes".
The 19.9 micron, AI-bred son of East Mundulla 141-11 had a 46.3mm eye muscle depth and 8.6mm fat.
Its other wool tests included a 3.4 standard deviation, 17.0 coefficient of variation and 99.4pc comfort factor.
"Spending $20,000 on a ram you have to do your due diligence and make sure you have the best ram for what we want to do," he said.
"There are not too many rams that can do what this bloke is doing, weighing 140.5kg at 14 months of age and he'll do his 7.2kg of wool cut in six months," he said.
"With this bloke there isn't the trade off in wool cut you normally get with big sheep and cutting 80mm (length) in five months opens up the option of six monthly shearing for us.
Mr Andrews said they were thrilled to make such a strong sale in COVID-19 times , especially without the buyer being able to physically inspect the ram.
The $20,000 price tag equals the price Hamilton Run received for a ram in another private sale last year to Bradfield stud, Mannanarie.
"We haven't been displaying our sheep anywhere this year so it is good to see clients getting the results and people coming to us," he said.
"We've been pushing high fertility achieving 150 per cent for the last six years in our stud and early growth while maintaining that staple length and density, and it's paying off."
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