Eagle Ridge stud has last hurrah with final sale offering

Eagle Ridge Dohne stud offered 40 rams of which 29 were sold to a top of $3600 from lot 9 and an average of $1325 surpassing last years top and average.

The top price ram was sired by Koonick 4249 and had figures of 4.9 in body weight, 1.1 eye muscle depth, 21.9 fibre, 19.8 micron, 65.3 yield and a Dohne Index of 159.6.

Stud principal Paul Webb said due to a lack of succession he had no choice but to wind down the operation and breed only for his own use.

"We offered a good even line of rams with long free growing wool," he said.

"We just didn't have enough volume of buyers."

Everglen Ag's Wayne Hodge, Lock, bought lot 9 along with 10 others and said he wanted to invest in the genetics on offer.

"Lot 9 had really good wool figures," he said.

"The fleece index stood out - anything over 15 is good and anything over 20 is outstanding.

"I've been buying there for quite some time and the progeny we were getting from Eagle Ridge were shining through pretty well.

"We join lots of ewes and needed lots of rams so we bought some good quality genetics which were not overly expensive.

"We'll use the younger rams and try to get better genetics coming through."

EP Livestock agent Richard Hill said the sale went extremely well.

"There was strong competition right through the sale on the 29," he said.

"The top price was true to type in regards to the Dohne breed, it had good weight for age, low in micron and had very good meat and wool traits.

"It was a terrific dual purpose sheep.

"All the buyers present were repeat buyers and long term supporters of the Eagle Ridge sale."

He said it was a great opportunity to see the stud and the quality of the stock grow from its initial stages until now.

"We wish the Webb family all the best for the future," he said.

The sale was conducted by EP Livestock.