THE flies may have been busy, but it was the high-indexing Poll Dorset rams with great carcase shape which caused buyers to wave their hands at Warrawindi stud's ninth annual ram sale on October 10.
The Penola stud's breeding philosophy of More Meat More Money also added to the returns of vendors David and Alison Galpin and family, with their average jumping more than $200.
In the breakdown, 115 of 117 rams found homes for a creditable $1033 average.
The rams were catalogued from the highest carcase index of 202.64 in descending order to 164.24, averaging 182.5.
Despite the high-index rams being sold first, buyers were content to pay $1000 or more for the pick of the pens of three paddock-prepared rams throughout the sale.
Two of the six specially selected rams offered individually sold at the $2000 sale high. Both went to Mount Gambier studs. Graham Slarks, Murrawa stud, chose Lot 5 as his pick for its pedigree, a May 2012-drop ram born a twin sired by Rannoch 09-172 and out of a daughter of Pollambi 07-2025.
"He has a flat top line, full back end and is a clean ram with plenty of depth of hindquarter," he said. "We have used a fair bit of 2025 in our AI program and those we would chase this fella to go over our maiden ewes." Mr Slarks has been breeding Poll Dorsets for more than a decade and will hold his own ram sale on October 25.
For the following lot, Thomas DeGaris & Clarkson's Peter DeGaris paid the same money for the heaviest ram in the catalogue at 122 kilograms, bought on behalf of Scott Allen, Crompton Park, who was unable to attend.
The Pollambi 2025 son had a carcase plus index of 191.34.
Despite the stud interest, it was loyal volume buyers from within 80 kilometres of Warrawindi who ensured the sale's success and kept it flowing.
Mark Caulfield, Caulfield Partners, Harrow, won a $500 credit for being the closest in the Guess the Weight competition of two Suffolk rams, being just 1kg off the exact weight. He was also the volume buyer with 13 rams for a $1027 average.
Anthony Tranter, TE&PF Tranter, Kalangadoo bought eight for a $1038 average.
Peter Winser, Kalangadoo, took home 10 between $800 and $900, and Simon Winser, bought nine rams for a $928 average.
Just seven rams made $600-$700 but there were rams for all budgets.
* Full report in Stock Journal, October 17 issue, 2013.
