Such is the demand for the Gippsland Merino Breeders’ rams, that the group will offer almost 20 more lots at their annual sale next month.
The group’s secretary Mal Nicholls, Elders Bairnsdale, said it was a credit to the breeders to offer more rams so that everyone would be able to buy the rams they want for their ewes.
Mr Nicholls said another highlight was the quality of the sale draft.
“I believe it will be the best run of rams we’ve presented,” he said.
He said because the reputation of, and the demand for, the group’s rams had been growing, the studs had been able to breed more rams, from which they would carefully select rams to offer at Bairnsdale. The participating studs reproted a lot of enquiry at their on-property field days in June, and group president Steve Harrison, Bindawarra stud at Giffard West, said that came from existing clients wanting to join more ewes as well as people who had not bought rams in recent times.
Mr Nicholls said the sale rams exemplified the “great Gippsland type” of sheep.
“(They have) good, pliable skins that produce wool that can handle all conditions,” he said.
“The softness and crimping in our wool, I believe, is second to none and something we’ve really concentrated on.”
He said the high prices Gippsland woolgrowers had been achieving at sales spoke to the wool’s quality. For example, the top line from Allan Stewart’s Stockton offering made 1681 cents a kilogram greasy at Melbourne last week.
The ram sale will operate on the base price of $800, and Mr Harrison said there had always been many lots sold at prices viable for commercial producers.
Last year’s Gippsland Merino Ram Sale saw a new record average price set at $1948, across the 155 Merino and Poll Merino rams sold.
While last year’s $5000 top-priced ram (sold by Stockton) was set to go to stud duty at Eildon Springs, Lexton, most of the sale draft is each year sold to commercial producers.
Mr Nicholls said by last week, he had posted 120 catalogues to producers who had expressed interest from throughout Victoria and into South Australia and right up to the mid-NSW.
He said breeders from the group had already sold two rams to Tasmania this season, at the Sheepvention pen of five ram sale in Hamilton.
The same studs are participating as did last year – Pendarra, Pendarra Poll, Bindawarra, Stockton, Round Hill, The Fringe and Nicholson River.
Mr Harrison said there would be more Poll Merino rams offered than in previous years and the rams’ wool spanned from 14 microns in fibre diameter through to 20M, which he said indicated they were suited to a wide range of climates and breeding goals.
“Many of the studs have extensive AI programs and have sourced the best genetics they can,” he said.
The sale will be held at the Bairnsdale Aerodome, which Mr Harrison said had been a great venue for the group, with plenty of space undercover and a north-facing aspect which let people see the rams in natural light.
He said the East Gippsland Shire Council had informed them that it was considering other venues for the sale in coming years.
Mr Harrison said while strong wool and sheep prices, as well as terrific results at Victorian rams sales in recent months, had buoyed their confidence in the job, the dry season could be a “handbrake”.
He said from around Yarram or Woodside and up to the high country was dry and the majority of livestock producers in that area were feeding out.
He said many had carried fodder over from last year and grain prices were reasonable, but it still took producers a lot of extra time to feed stock.
People can inspect the rams, all of which have been checked and will have all fleece measurements displayed, from 10am, with the sale to start at noon.
