Kerrilyn Merinos
*Total clearance of 57 Merino and Poll Merino rams sold to $2000 (twice), av $1139
A TOTAL clearance, increased average and increased top price, meant that Kerrilyn Merinos stud principals Norm and Kerri Weir ended the day with big smiles on their faces.
The duo offered 57 Merino and Poll Merino rams at their on-property sale at Dunluce on Friday, all of which were snapped up by a large gallery of buyers.
The average price was up $72 on last year, hitting $1139, and five extra rams were sold this year to last.
The top price of $2000 was reached by two Poll Merino rams, Lot 5 and Lot 54.
Lot 5 was purchased by John Baker, Bamganie, a first-time buyer.
“He’s got nice, bright, well-nourished wool, and will produce a lot of it,” Mr Baker said.
A May 2016-drop, the ram recorded fleece measurements of an 18.08 micron, 3.72 standard deviation (SD), 20.6 co-efficient of variation (CV), and a 100 per cent comfort factor (CF).
Mr Baker took home another three rams, av $1625.
“We always join in November and December, so we’ll put these rams out then with our Merino ewes,” he said.
Lot 54 was purchased by Stan and Mavis Shay, Moliagul, who are also first-time buyers.
“He’s big and tall and well-grown, he’s got good wool and good conformation,” Mr Shay said.
The June 2016-drop ram recorded an 18.3 micron, 2.7 SD, 14.8 CV, and a 99.7pc CF.
Mr and Ms Shay bought a total of four rams, av $1450.
“We’ve been breeding crossbreds but our Merino ewes are getting a bit older, so we’ll be using these to breed some fresh ones,” he said.
After the sale, Elders agents Adam Millard and Tim Hill said there was enough competition to potentially move away from a helmsman sale next year.
“The helmsman auction system goes very well and has for the past few years, however there’s enough demand here now to maybe convert to an open cry auction,” Mr Hill said.
“It was a good sale today, good average and good clearance.
Mr Millard agreed.
“There was good competition and strong bidding, which was a reflection of the rams on offer,” Mr Millard said.
“Kerrilyn rams are well-known for being good, productive sheep.”
Kerrilyn stud principal Norm Weir said this was the first time he had offered so many polled rams, about 40pc of the offering.
“I’m not trying to breed them this way, it just happened,” Mr Weir said.
“The year we were joining, we had no water on this farm, and we had a battle to join them up in their right mobs.
“One horned ram didn’t work, and when we mixed them all up, the polled rams beat the horned ones.”
He said in the end it didn’t matter, because all of the rams sold well, including the polled.