DESPITE the difficulties presented by the season, the Rowett family was all smiles after its combined Ulandi Park Poll Dorset and North Ulandi White Suffolk ram sale at Marrabel on Friday.
It was the Rowetts’ 21st annual ram sale and in a celebratory result there was a total clearance of the combined offering of 161 rams, topping at a sale record of $18,000 and averaging $2014.
Ulandi Park’s Clayton and Andrea Rowett and their youngest son Henry offered 149 Poll Dorset rams, while their eldest son Charles offered 12 North Ulandi appendix White Suffolk rams to 47 registered bidders.
Lot 4 – Ulandi Park 170151Tw – made the $18,000 top price. Bidding via phone through Superior Selections, the partnership of Ben Prentice, Kurralea stud, Ariah Park, NSW, and Grant and Bryce Hausler, Janmac stud, Goroke, Vic, placed the winning bid.
The ram was sired by Valma 150424, the 2016 Royal Adelaide Show junior champion. Like its sire, UP 170151 was a broad ribbon winner, taking out the Balmoral Trophy class and then being sashed the reserve senior champion ram at this year’s Royal Melbourne Show.
The April-drop ram had figures of 0.4 birthweight, 14.3 post-weaning weight, -0.7 fat and 2.1 eye muscle depth, culminating in a Carcase Plus index of 200.
Operating on his own, Mr Prentice also bought lot 3, UP 170476, sired by the 2016 Royal Adelaide Show reserve champion ram UP 150186, for $9000. It impressed with phenotype very similar to the sale-topper, plus Lambplan figures including 2.8EMD, a Carcase Plus index of 201 and the equal highest Lamb Eating Quality index in the elite group of 138.
After buying three rams to $8500 last year, Roger Wilkinson, Camborn Station, via Wentworth, NSW, was back again and outlaid $15,000 for lot 2 – UP170279Tw, sired by Pollambi 130052. A big, powerful and very long ram, it had a PWWT of 16.5, 2.0EMD and a Carcase Plus index of 208.
Also operating at the top end were Rick Foster, Haven Park, stud, Wando Vale, Vic, who paid $10,000 for UP 170356Tw, sired by Aberdeen 140217, and Betty and Ken Walker, Kenlorne stud, Beachport, who bought UP 170425Tw, another Valma 424 son, for $9000.
Peter and Geoff Ballantyne, Ballantyne Ag, Millicent, paid the same price for UP 170310Tri, which boasted a Carcase Plus index of 212. They later paid $8500 for UP 170112Tw, a muscly Valma 150424 son with a Carcase Plus index of 201.
The sale’s volume buyers were Andrew and Patrick Allchurch, Braebrook Pty Ltd, Tothill Creek. They paid to $2200 and averaged $1693 for 14 rams; 10 Ulandi Park Poll Dorsets, plus four North Ulandi White Suffolks, including the three $1700 top price lots in this draft.
Close on their heels with 13 rams were long-term supporters S&R DiGiorgio, Lucindale, paying to $2000 three times, averaging $1492.
The sale was conducted by Elders and Landmark, with Elders’ Tom Penna and Landmark’s Leo Redden taking bids.
