*63 of 75 Poll Merino rams sold to $6000, av $2460
A GOOD mix of regular and new buyers spent the extra public holiday attending and bidding on the 2022 Burnbrae Poll Merino stud ram sale at Inverleigh.
The top-priced Poll Merino of the sale was for Lot 66, Tag 210005, which made $6000 to local buyers Chris and Katrina Bruty, Homelea, Mount Emu.
The ram recorded a fibre diameter of 17.4 micron, a standard deviation of 2.6, a co-efficient of variation of 14.58 and a comfort factor of 99.8 per cent.
Burnbrae stud principal Steven Wishart said the ram's breeding values were "one of the best offerings of this year" and it was a theme with many producers looking for Poll Merinos that could battle the wet seasons.
"He's got a lot of breeding values that were in the top 1-5pc, and really that was what interested buyers on the day," he said.
The sale had a large amount of interest, which Mr Stewart said was the result of a lot of work put in throughout the year to improve genetics across their stud.
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Rams with better wool types saw a lot of competition throughout the sale with local interest, as well as those who displayed good clean fleece weight and welfare traits like breech wrinkle.
"Those better high-rainfall wool types and rams within that top 1-5pc breeding values sold really well," Mr Stewart said.
"There was a big focus on those welfare traits throughout the catalogue too and it is really promising that producers are making that change to breeding values, and those better-performing welfare traits.
"People understand that, especially with these wet years, there are a lot of inputs being put into the sheep and the way that we are breeding is to make the shape work a bit more for the farmer."
Last year the stud saw some changes to its management in a bid to make sure genetics were fully expressed, with a focus on breeding for plain-bodied easy-care sheep with low worms and low dags.
Mr Wishart said they had bred for flystrike culling and fleece faults for decades, so that mulesing had become unnecessary.
The fact that the sale had many repeat buyers, along with new faces showing up, meant things were looking "promising" for the stud and his data collection was paying off.
"It just shows that there are some breeding values that are actually doing what they say they are doing," he said.
All buyers were from Victoria, with larger volume buyers purchasing up to eight rams.
There was also interest from interstate studs at the sale, which Mr Wishart also said was promising.
