Koole Vale rams have stud appeal

Eilan Donan stud principal Jock MacRae, Elphinestone, paid the top price of $4500 for Lot 2, a poll ram by an Orrie Cowie sire.

Last year, John Barty, Beverley Merinos, Redesdale, bought the top-priced ram.

"It's very humbling people think that much of our sheep and they take them home to their programs; we are really pleased they have put their faith in us," Mr Harris said.

"I have known Jock for a long time, the MacRaes come here tagging my rams for the shows.

"I look up to those people, so it's great they come and buy off me."

Lot 2, a 116-kilogram ram, was sired by OCP, an Orrie Cowie Poll, described as a big, plainer-bodied animal.

The ram had an 18.5-micron fleece, a standard deviation of 3.9, a co-efficient of variation of 22.1 and a comfort factor of 99.6 per cent.

"He stands perfectly - he's a big, long, tall, square ram, with a good outlook and was the heaviest in the sale," Mr Harris said.

"He is out of a ram we bought at Canberra a couple of years ago and he has bred really well.

"He has bred true to type and has done a good job for us.

"This is the first drop we have sold, we are pretty pleased, he has produced a good line of saleable rams.

"Out of all the SA studs I think Orrie Cowie has some of the whitest wools, with good cutting ability."

He said he felt Orrie Cowie had been doing "such a good job" for a long time and he had always been interested in their bloodlines.

"The opportunity came up when I was judging in Canberra, so I bought a ram," he said.

Read more: Koole Vale doubles top-priced record after ram sells for $7000

Mr MacRae said he wasn't intending to buy, when the came to the Koole Vale sale.

"I just liked the ram's make and shape - he ticks all the boxes as far as being a stud sire," he said.

"He is big, deep and wide and has some nice wool on him."

It was the first time he had bought at Koole Vale.

"I've come over many times and watched the stud progress, this time I came over to have a bit of a look," he said.

"I didn't have an order to buy, but I saw that ram and liked him; he was the best sheep here."

Mr Harris said Koole Vale had decided against running an online sale.

"Our clientele are local, within 150 kilometres, so we didn't think it would warrant us doing that," he said.

Volume buyers included L Gleeson, Heathcote, who bought two Merinos and six White Suffolks, BJ and LH Baker, Laanecoorie, who bought three Merinos and three White Suffolks, Hillview, Costerfield, who bought four Merinos and two White Suffolks, and the Tattersall Brothers, Nagambie, who bought four White Suffolks.