*48 of 49 Dorper rams sold to $5000, av $1713
*23 of 25 White Dorper rams sold to $1059, av $1186
INTERSTATE buyers from Western Australia and South Australia were among the producers to take home Dorper and White Dorper rams from the Dell African Dumisa stud sale last week.
The Thyra, NSW, stud, north of Moama, NSW, sold 71 rams with three passed in and had 33 registered buyers at its sale last Tuesday.
"We were really happy with the sale because we were only expecting a 50 per cent clearance rate," stud principal Andrea Vagg said.
"A majority of the country up north where the Dorpers tend to go, around the Bourke and Wentworth areas, have had no rain."
The stud sold 48 of 49 Dorper rams to $5000, averaging $1713 and 23 of 25 White Dorper rams to $2400 with an average of $1186.
Dell African Dumisa also sold 24 Dorpers ewes to $1500 with an average of $727 and 14 White Dorper ewes to $1050, averaging $739.
Six rams went to Adam and Michelle Donegan, Northam, WA, who also purchased one five ewes.
Mrs Vagg said the sale grossed the same on the previous year's sale.
"The ewe flock nationally for Dorpers is down but they are more suited to drought," she said.
"It has had an impact on the demand for rams more generally because we've found buyers are more fussy with quality but we've had our sheep classed and the quality is up."
Return client Bruce Williams, Karra Station, Balranald, NSW, bought 20 Dorper and White Dorper rams while Allan Crozier, Marfield Station, Ivanhoe, NSW, bought eight White Dorper rams.
Frank Old, Frank Old and Sons, Bourke, NSW, bought eight Dorper rams.
The stud has claimed a string of awards at recent shows, including grand champion Dorper ram and grand champion Dorper and White Dorper ewe at the Dorper Sheep Society Australia national show in Toowoomba, Qld, in March as well as the supreme champion Dorper and White Dorper ewe at the Australian Sheep & Wool Show in Bendigo.
It also sold the top-priced ram at the Dubbo National Dorper Sale for $20,000, a record the stud has held for the past three years.
Top-priced Dorper buyers Matt and Zaya Wood, Goodooga, NSW, said they would use the $5000 ram as part of their embryo transfer program at Khan Dorpers on the Queensland/NSW border.
"He's very big, he has a big frame, he's fast maturing and has exceptional growth numbers," Mr Wood said.
"Last year at the national sale we bought the top price ram Jackpot and we spent about $9500 ... he's a type five ram, he's structurally perfect.
"What we wanted to do is add some growth and speed and some more mass quicker and that's why this ram fits in with what we're doing."
Landmark Echuca livestock manager Lachie Collins said he was pleased with the results of the sale considering the dry conditions locally and interstate.
"It's a credit to the breeding program and quality of the stock and Dell Dorpers," he said.
"It certainly helps when repeat buyers come back and new buyers are always there because they're chasing new bloodlines."