Hopes are high for the 2017 Sheepvention pen of five ram sale.
Last year, the sale – which is said to be the largest multivendor ram sale in Australia – set a record average price of $2785. Last year’s top price of $30,000, set by South Australian stud Moorundie Poll, was just $1000 shy of the record paid for a Terrick West ram in 2001.
Last year, 288 Merinos averaged $2830 and 15 Dohnes $2416 and sale achieved a 90 per cent clearance and grossed $100,000 more than the previous year.
This year, slightly fewer rams are set to be offered at the Tuesday, August 8, sale, with 270 rams in the catalogue. This includes 54 pens of five rams, including 52 pens of Merinos, one of Corriedales and one of Dohnes.
Elite Livestock Auctions will again do a simulcast of the auction.
Managing director Chris Norris said their bidding platform allowed people to you to bid in real time, whether they were at the sale or logged in to participate online. People can either chose to view the auction or register to potential bid.
“We’ve got latency down to three-hundredths of a second,” Mr Norris said.
He said since Sheepvention last year, he and the team had done about 100 online sales, which combines live video, audio and bidding.
“With these three things together, it’s a seamless integration of the sale-day happening.
“People can log in and get involved, no matter where they are in the world.”
Mr Norris said while companies such as AuctionsPlus had pioneered digital livestock marketing in Australia, it was a privilege to be able to incorporate it with live video streaming. He said they had to wait for internet speeds in regional and remote Australia to improve to offer these services to more people.
To bid at any of our auction sales, you must first register by creating a bidding account on the Sign Up tab below.
Mr Norris thanked Dale Bruns and and other staff at Australian Wool Network for supporting the first time Elite Livestock Auctions’ simulcast the Sheepvention ram sale last year. Since then, Elite Livestock Auctions has introduced a ‘pick of the pen’ function allowing buyers to chose which animals they want in a pen.
Long-time support of the Sheepvention ram sale Robert Harding, Glendonald stud, Nhill, would again offer five pens, or 25 head, at this year’s sale.
“I’ve had 20 or more there for years,” Mr Harding said. “I haven’t counted up all the rams I’ve sold at Sheepvention, but it would be around 500 or better.”
He said Glendonald and the Hicks family’s Hannaton stud, at Kaniva, were the only two studs that had sold rams at every sale. Mr Harding said they had seen the sale transform over the decades, for example originally it was a flock ram sale but it had transformed to have more rams sold to other studs.
There are about 50 studs participating, of which about 30 are based in Victoria. Most of the others are from NSW, with three from SA and one from Tasmania.
