Aroona Park tops Elite sale

It wasn’t until lot 36 that the sale hit its top price of $9000, which was the same last year.

It was the first time Aroona Park stud, Minlaton, South Australia, sold the sale-topper and principal Peter Button was rapt.

“He’s obviously a good ram who is meaty and well fleshed,” Mr Button said.

It was also the first time the Hooper family, Vortex stud, Goorambat, had purchased an Aroona Park ram.

Daniel Hooper said the family had bought a ram here a couple of years ago. When inspecting the rams before the sale, Mr Hooper said he and father Robert had selected two rams to bid for – the other being lot 1 from Warburn stud that sold for $8000 to the Dixon family’s Ashbank stud, Dubbo, NSW.

Mr Hooper said they were impressed by the well-balanced ram that had good length, carcase traits, including butt shape.

He said the purchase was part of their drive in recent years to improve the their ram offering, which included White Suffolks, more recently Charollais sheep and crosses of these breeds.

He said the 135kg ram with 55mm muscle depth, was a good outcross and the family would probably join it early, in January, but that would depend on the season and what conditions the ewes were in. He is hopeful for a good spring after a wet winter at Goorambat.

The second highest priced ram was a Sunnybanks ram that was knocked down to Rene stud, Culcairn, NSW.

Chairman of the sale John Jamieson said he was pleased with the results of the sale.

“Same top price as last year, but the average is up by a couple of hundred dollars,” Mr Jamieson said.

He said this probably came down to the great selection of rams.

“They stand well, have good heads and structure, and will breed more good sheep.”

Mr Jamieson also purchased the top-priced White Suffolk ewe, which was an August 2015-drop ewe from Warburn Stud, Warburn, NSW.

He said the ewe, which he paid $2200 for, won reserve junior champion at Saturday’s show.

“I’ll be using it to breed more sheep that suit my purpose,” he said.

 “My clients like a bit of length, so I’ll be hoping to breed sheep with good length and a good head and structure.”

Of the 11 White Suffolk ewes on sale, Laurie Fairclough, York Stud, York, WA, purchased 10 of them.

Mr Fairclough, who runs about 450 White Suffolk ewes and 300 Poll Dorset ewes, is a regular at the sale.

He said he bought five or six ewes and one ram last year, and one or two rams in the few years before that.

“I always come across to buy a few young ewes to keep our genetics up,” Mr Fairclough said.

Spending a total of $5800, av $580, Mr Fairclough said he’s been chasing the bloodlines from the studs he bought from.

He bought three from Ramsay Park, Minlaton, SA, two from Loddon Park, Baringhup, two from Glengarry, Walla Walla, NSW, two from Warburn, and one from Wattle Park, Finley, NSW.

“They stand correct and are structurally sound,” he said.

Dennis Duffy, Wanden White Suffolks, Tumbarumba, NSW, purchased the top-priced Suffolk ram at $2000, which was the only Suffolk ram sold of the nine on offer.

Mr Duffy said he would be using the ram, which is from Sayla Park, Kilmore, as a replacement ram, and to introduce some Suffolk blood into his flock of White Suffolks.

“Suffolks dress out a lot better and adapt to the cold a lot better, which is beneficial to me as I’m near the Snowy Mountains,” Mr Duffy said.

He said he’d previously been buying from a stud in Tasmania, but was after a change up in the bloodlines he’d been using.

“The first thing that got me about this ram was its muscle, it’s always good for a Suffolk to have a bit of extra fat,” he said.

“It also had excellent temperament, probably the best of all the sheep I’ve seen today.”

Mr Duffy also purchased one Suffolk ewe.