A TERRIFIC sale was a fitting celebration of Ted Beattie’s 50 years of breeding Dorsets.
Mr Beattie and son Simon run Derrynock stud and they had a total clearance of the 146 Poll Dorset rams offered last Thursday.
The sale draft included 25 stud rams, which averaged $5364 and topped the sale at $15,000.
Allendale Poll Dorset stud, Bordertown, South Australia, secured the top-priced ram, tag 311-15. Principal Alastair Day said they were impressed by its correct structure, amount of meat, nice clean head and legs.
“He’s a very good sheep,” Mr Day said.
The ram was sired by Derrynock 137-14 which was the first ram offered in the 2015 sale. Simon said it was among the select group of top rams that they used as ram lambs in the stud before offering for sale.
The top-priced lot had Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) of +10 kilograms weaning weight (WWT), +16.1kg post-weaning weight (PWWT), -1.0 millimetres post-weaning fat (Pfat), +2.0mm post weaning eye muscle depth (PEMD) and index figures of 207 for Carcase-Plus and 141 for LEQ.
These put him in the top five per cent off all 2015-drop terminal sires for WWT, PWWT, C+ and LEQ.
Mr Day said after inspecting Derrynock’s rams a few weeks before the sale, they had three on a shortlist and were able to secure two of these at the sale.
He said rams would go out with stud ewes in late November or early December and he would sell semen in the top-priced ram if people were interested in using him.
Mr Day has bought two Derrynock rams previously, including the 183 that sired the interbreed progeny group at the Royal Melbourne Show.
He paid $6500 for the second ram he purchased this year. The Beattie family are retaining semen shares in this ram, which Mr Day said indicated they thought highly of him as well.
Another ram sold for the second highest price of $14,000 to fellow repeat buyer and SA stud Mulgundawa, Robe. The Burzacott family’s stud also purchased a second ram for $6500.
The second priced ram was by an AI sire, ram lamb from Ivadene stud, 33-14.
It had performance figures of +10kg WWT, +16kg PWWT, -0.2mm Pfat, +2.6mm PEMD and 210 for C+.
Simon said its Trade $ Index of 113.7 put it in the top 1pc of that index. He said it was also in the top 5pc for gestation length, which was something on which they had focused for the past five years because it helped with lambing ease and lamb survival.
The Beatties also sold 30 stud ewes for an average price of $686, which Simon said was about double what they had tended to make.
They also cleared all of the 121 flock Poll Dorset rams for an average of $1305.
E&S McGrath, Strathdownie, purchased the top-priced rams of the category, paying $3000/head paid for a pen of two. The prime lamb producers got 11 rams in total and have bought Derrynock rams for three years. Simon said they had topped the Mt Gambier prime lamb market during the peak few weeks last year.
Simon said he was pleased the average was strong and there were still rams suited to different budgets.
He said the Meat Maternal composite rams did not sell as well, with 26 of 40 sold to $2000, av $870.
Most rams were sold into southern NSW, SA and Victoria.
“After 50 years of breeding, it’s a reward for Dad’s efforts on working with conformation and good performance figures,” Simon said.
He was particularly pleased to offer “one of the healthiest lots of rams” given they have had one of the hardest seasons his father Ted remembered, with a long, dry summer, a late autumn and “40 inches since May”.
