After the previous two years of closed borders Ridway Advance's commercial clients from across the country took advantage of being able to attend this year's sale and bid with confidence.
Overall David, Karen and Devon Ridgway sold 165 of 176 Poll Merino rams for a tremendous $2770 average on Wednesday last week at their Bordertown property.
There was a total clearance in the main shed of 135 rams for a $3085 average.
Even as the sale progressed to the nearby ecoshelter the bids kept flowing with another 30 rams topping at $2600 averaging $1347.
The car park was full of utes with interstate number plates, some driving up to 1000 kilometres to attend the sale and look over the impressive offering from the stud which ceased mulesing more than a decade ago.
There was also a strong buying contingent from the Upper SE and Mallee.
At last year's sale the online bids outnumbered those in the shed with 63 rams sold through AuctionsPlus but in stark contrast this year there were only six active bidders online who bought four lots.
One of these was lot 1 bound for WA.
Seven of the first 10 lots were bought by NSW buyers, including the lot 4 sale topper.
Paul and Chris McPherson, Allanvale Station via Wentworth, NSW, who have been buying for nearly 20 years outlasted strong competition to secure the $12,500 ram- a new on-property stud record for Ridgway Advance.
The lot 4 ram was April 2021 drop weighing in at 111 kilograms with a 48mm eye muscle depth.
"He had all the features we were looking for good wool and frame, he was a good all rounder," he said.
The 18.4 micron son of GP190 had good wool tests including a standard deviation of 2.4, coefficient of variation of 13.1 per cent and comfort factor of 99.8pc.
Paul said Ridgway Advance genetics did well in Allanvale's dry conditions with the average annual rainfall less than 250mm.
They are gradually rebuilding their self-replacing flock of 1200 ewes back to 1800-2000 ewes they ran prior to the drought.
Australian Sheep Breeding Values were displayed on all the sale rams for the first time with many in the top 10pc and 20pc for clean fleece weight, including the sale topper which had an ASBV of 25.13.
Lot 2, a RA050 son was knocked down to Tupra Pastoral Co, Oxley, NSW, for the sale's second highest price of $8000.
The 110kg ram which was 19.7M had the largest EMD in the catalogue of 51mm with a fat depth of 7mm.
Several buyers among the nearly 50 registered bidders had big orders which kept up the sale's buoyant tone, including Meadow Vale, Woodstock, NSW, which secured 19 rams to $4000, averaging $1268.
Claughton Family Trust, Cummins, secured 15 rams to $2800 twice, averaging $1773 and C&A Woidt, Cookes Plains, bought nine rams to $2600 twice, averaging $2133.
CJ Rathjen, Birdwood, was successful on eight rams in the top end for a $3275 average.
Stud principal David Ridgway said it was "easily their best sale" and great to see their clients able to be back in the sale sheds.
He was also pleased to have the opportunity with COVID restrictions easing of putting their sheep in front of potential clients at the recent Australian Sheep & Wool Show in Bendigo and Hamilton Sheepvention.
"There was a great atmosphere in the shed with a big crowd and the sale ticks along a lot better when we are not waiting for as many people on AuctionsPlus," he said.
Mr Ridgway said they were focused on a "type of sheep" for their commercial clients rather than breeding a few high priced stud rams.
He noted the use of embryo transfer programs had sped up their genetic progress.
"When we first started the Ridgway Advance stud we promoted it as the modern Merino from a traditional base by freeing the skins up and plainer type but in the last five years we have aimed for a balanced Merino with meat and wool and high fertility," he said.
"For us it has been about gradually building a quality program not using extremes to get somewhere."
Nutrien stud stock auctioneer Gordon Wood said it was the best on-property sale result for the stud in its history, including the most rams sold and showed the Ridgway Advance sheep performed in a range of environments.
"That is one of the things about these Ridgway Advance sheep, people are discovering them from all over Australia, they really are suiting some of those high rainfall areas like Crookwell (NSW) as well as Stevens Farming at Broken Hill who is buying here today," he said.
He had high praise for the "dual purpose Merinos" with impressive eye muscle depths which could almost match British breed rams, many 48-50mm along with the "pliable, productive skins and fibre".
"The beautiful thing here today is there is no straw in the pens, there is no hiding anything," he said.
Fellow Nutrien stud stock auctioneer Richard Miller said it was pleasing to see some new buyers "stamping their mark" with volume orders.
"Clearly they are chasing that real modern Merino- that non mulesed, stylish, long, easy growing staple with plenty of style and character to it and the carcase attributes," he said.
"If you came to buy 30 rams you could have marked up half the catalogue to suit the same criteria, you can't do that in many places."
Ridgway Advance has 25 rams reserved for the Classings Classic sale at Murray Bridge on September 5 and three rams for the Adelaide Merino ram sale four days later.
Nutrien Bordertown conducted the sale with Mr Wood, Mr Miller and Jack Guy the auctioneers.
