ASHLEY PARK
*88 of 120 Poll Dorset, White Suffolk and Suffolk rams sold to $1800 (2) Poll Dorset
A MIX of regular and new clients took away rams from last week’s 21st annual Ashley Park on-property ram sale, near Bairnsdale.
Changing the lambing season – and therefore the age of the drop – did not appear to affect the stud’s sales, where the bulk of the 120 rams sold.
On offer was a mix of show and flock rams, all bought by commercial breeders.
Two rams topped the sale – both Poll Dorset show rams – Lot 1, bought at $1800 by Brian and Chris Kyle, Brisbank Pastoral, Bengworden and Leongatha; and Lot 4, bought by M&D Stewart, Hillside.
The Stewarts were also bulk purchasers at the sale, taking away seven of the first nine Poll Dorset rams offered.
Lot 1, an August-drop ram and one of twins, weighed 105.5kg coming into the sale, with an eye muscle depth score (EMD) of 46.5.
Lot 4, a June-drop ram, weighed 127.5kg, with EMD 49.5.
Both purchasers were return buyers.
Brisbank turns off store lambs and the Stewart enterprise sells fat lambs regularly throughout the year.
Jarrod Blandford, Ararat, bought the highest priced White Suffolk ram, Lot 12, with a winning bid of $1400. He also bought Lot 13 at $1300.
Lot 12, a July-2016 ram lamb, weighed 113.5kg coming in to the sale, with an EMD 49.1.
Lot 13, a couple of weeks older but lighter at 107.5kg, had an EMD 46.5.
Mr Blandford said he had previously bought Ashley Park rams by private treaty and this was his first time at the auction.
In total, he bought those two White Suffolk rams and six Suffolk sires.
“We’ll put the blacks over composite ewe lambs and join the whites to merinos,” Mr Blandford said.
He turns off half his annual drop as sucker lambs.
The purchaser of the top-priced Suffolk ram, Ken Dawson of Nicholson, paid $1250 for Lot 16, a July-drop lamb, weighing 111kg and EMD 43.5.
Mr Dawson is also a return buyer of Ashley Park rams.
“Their rams are proven to breed good lambs. We join them to black faced ewes,” he said.
He sells lambs as suckers.
Ian Kyle, principal of the stud and in partnership with his wife, Pamela, son, Reagan, and daughter, Lorren Cole, was generally happy with the outcome of the auction.
“We moved lambing later, so there was some autumn and some spring drop in the rams offered,” he said.
“We did it because we wanted to utilise feed better. Today’s purchasers have shown there’s little difference between the pasture-fed and show rams.
“It was a good result.”
There were two new clients who purchased rams, among the bidders present and represented.
Sharp Fullgrabe managed the sale and Mick O’Callaghan was the auctioneer.
