An eastern states syndicate paid a new Western Australian record price for a White Suffolk ram of $29,250 this week.
The headline result was achieved at the fourth annual WA Elite White Suffolk, Suffolk and Poll Dorset sale at Williams on Monday.
The sale attracted a big crowd to view a top catalogue of leading WA prime lamb sire and maternal genetics.
The record priced lot was number 17 but was pushed up to open the sale due to the significant interest in the ram.
The ram Ida Vale 19-4051 was bred by the Ida Vale stud, Kojanup, WA, of Andrew Greenup and Tamesha Gardner.
The buyers were a syndicate made up of Victorian studs, Booloola, run by Shane and Amber Baker, Baringhup, and Charinga's Lenny and Maja Polkinghorne, Paradise, and the Wakool-based Induro stud of Guy Treweek.
An opening bid of $9000 got the ball rolling on a bidding marathon for Nutrien Livestock auctioneer Mark Warren where three players battled it out to the end before the record final bid of $29,250 was placed by Nutrien Livestock Breeding representative Roy Addis.
The late May 2019-drop ram was by South Australian sire Ashmore 17-293 and out of a Farrer (NSW) sired Ida Vale daughter 15-4386 and displayed LambPlan figures of 0.25 birth weight kilograms (BWT, 12.3 weaning weight (WWT), 19.6 post-weaning weight (PWT), a -0.1mm post-weaning fat (PFAT), 2.6mm post weaning eye muscle depth ( PEMD) and a 153.6 total carcase production (TCP).
Speaking on behalf of the syndicate Shane Baker, said due to travel restrictions they couldn't get to the sale to see the ram in the flesh, but the ram's strong breeding and recommendations from astute judges encouraged the group to pay top money.
"We knew his pedigree background which is an outcross for the White Suffolk breed," Mr Baker said.
"We relied on a couple of people to look at him for us and the combination of his conformation and breeding gave us the confidence to pay this sought of money for him.
"We've used both sides of his sire's and dam's pedigree before so we had a bit of confidence."
Mr Baker said the ram would go straight for semen collection before spending time on each of the properties of the buyers.
Buyer representative Roy Addis, said he notified the buyer syndicate of the ram and they decided to "have a go at it".
"He was a very structurally correct ram and carried some new bloodlines for the buyers," he said.
He said the inclusion of AuctionsPlus for the first time helped expose WA genetics to a wider audience.
Breeder of the record ram, Andrew Greenup said the price was a "great result".
He said the ram's sire was purchased from Ashmore in 2018 and introduced some new genetics which added to the level of interest.
The sale was conducted by Elders and Nutrien Livestock.
