*101 of 126 White Suffolk and Charollais rams sold to $3050, av $1625.
Charollais rams again proved popular at Vortex White Suffolk and Charollais stud, Goorambat, with the top-priced animal being snapped up by a young farmer.
Tatong's Jake Evans, 17, said he had only been farming since leaving school this year, although he came from a sixth-generation family of primary producers.
"I only just started farming a couple of months ago and I thought I would get a nice 'meaty' ram to put over a few ewes I have on the hilly country," Mr Evans said.
"He really caught my eye."
He said he had been working with his father, Terry, and grandfather Bernie, before striking out on his own.
"My father has sheep and my grandfather has cattle," he said.
Currently he was running 55 first cross ewes and doing contracting work, off-farm.
"We've used the Charollais at home, on my father's farm, and I have seen how they grow out and produce some pretty good lambs," he said.
"I have a small place, around Tatong."
The ram would be joined in December, before going over maiden ewes in the new year.
He said he wasn't sure how he'd market the lambs, but they would probably go over the hooks.
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The top-priced ram, lot 61, had figures of a 0.23 kilogram birthweight, a 11.79kg post-weaning weight, a post-weaning fat measurement of -0.91 millimetres, a 1.46 square centimetre post-weaning eye muscle depth and Terminal Carcase Production figure of 133.77.
The ram weighed 75.5kg and had 81.25 percent Charollais genetics.
Vortex sold 25 out of the 40 White Suffolks it offered, to a top of $2200.
The stud sold 75 of the 86 Charollais rams it offered, hitting a top of $3050..
Vortex stud co-principal Daniel Hooper said he had a feeling the White Suffolks would not sell as well this year.
"They have been red hot, the last few years, and a lot of clients rang me up and said they have plenty of rams - they bought a lot the last few years," Mr Hooper said.
"Our sheep tend to last a long time
"One lady rang up a while ago and thought her rams needed replacing - we found out they were eight years old.
"They [the rams] hang around if you look after them; we breed them and set them up to last."
He was confident many of the rams, which were passed in, would be sold privately.
But Mr Hooper said he was very pleased with the way the Charollais went: Vortex started breeding them in 2014, after seeing their potential.
"They have done a lot better than expected, they have really come on, all over the country," he said.
The last few years the stud had sold out of rams - "we haven't been able to breed enough".
"They are a specialist as easy lambers and are especially good over maiden ewes - while people are buying a lot of ewes in they are going to need rams to put over them.
The top-priced ram was a bigger framed animal, with a good hindquarter, he said.
"He is pretty thick through the loin, he is going to do a pretty good job with easy lambing and he's going to breed lambs that really grow out," he said.
Among the volume buyers were Benalla Rodwells livestock agent Dale Buitenhuis (eight) and Leslie Lawrence (11),
Minona Farms, Dookie, Elders Bendigo, Merran Park Pastoral, Swan Hill, and Chartwell Farms, Romsey, were also among the volume buyers.
Andrew Miller
I'm a general reporter with Stock & Land, with a special interest in irrigation issues. I completed my cadetship, with the Age, in 1980. Over my career, I've worked for ABC radio news (Mt Isa, Qld) and at provincial and suburban newspapers.
I'm a general reporter with Stock & Land, with a special interest in irrigation issues. I completed my cadetship, with the Age, in 1980. Over my career, I've worked for ABC radio news (Mt Isa, Qld) and at provincial and suburban newspapers.
