*30 of 48 Southdown rams sold to $6600, av $1843
*26 of 29 Southdown/White Suffolk-cross rams sold to $3100, av $1845
*12 of 15 Southdown ewes sold to $1400, av $950
One of Chandpara Southdown stud's successful show rams has followed up with sales ring success, going for the top price at this year's annual on-property sale.
The Tylden operation's top-seller, a Southdown ram, was reserve champion at this year's Ballarat Victorian Sheep Show and the Southdown National Show at the Geelong Royal Show.
The ram was knocked down to Gippsland stud, Ashley Park, Bairnsdale for $6600.
The stud sold the remainder of its 15 ewes after the auction concluded, for a complete clearance, and 26 of its Southdown/White Suffolk-cross rams.
Ashley Park's Reagan Kyle, Bairnsdale, said the family had their eye on the ram, after seeing him on the show circuit.
"We liked the thickness through his loin and his red meat yield really appealed to me, as well as his hindquarter, and he is very good up on his feet," Mr Kyle said.
"He is the complete ram and what we were after, I suppose."
He said he was running Poll Dorsets, White Suffolk and Southdowns.
The main bloodlines at Ashley Park were Yentrac, Tatura and Burrumbeet, and Cotties Run, Bathurst, NSW.
"We were probably after an outcross, to put over the Cotties Run daughters and this was the perfect ram for us," he said.
The stud had bought from Chandpara, "a long time ago".
He said he was hoping the ram would put meat in the hindquarter of the lambs the property was breeding.
The top-priced ram, lot 21, was sired by Yentrac 496/15, the best yearling ram and reserve champion at the Melbourne Royal Show in 2016.
The 119 kilogram ram was out of Chandpara 45/16.
The July 2021-drop ram had a eye-muscle width of 109 millimetres, an eye muscle depth of 53mm, a fat measurement of 9.5 per cent and an eye muscle area of 44.48 square centimetres.
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Chandpara co-principal Andrew Sellars-Jones described the ram as "kind of my favorite in the draft".
"He has had a really successful show career," he said.
The ram also won the Meat Yield Class at Geelong.
"He is not just a showy ram, his objective measurements prove that he is a great yielding animal, with fantastic length, great loin and fantastic hindquarter," Mr Sellars-Jones said.
"He has a really great nature as well, he is going to breed really, really well.
"He was a standout ram from the beginning."
Nutrien Ag Solutions auctioneer Peter Godbolt rated it as a "very successful sale" with new clients buying both rams and ewes.
"A lot of the sheep stayed locally and there have been a few of them go into that Albury/Rutherglen area," he said.
The Southdown/White Suffolk cross rams sold well, topping at $3100.
Volume buyers included M O'Sullivan, Barfold and Aramat, Mulwala, NSW (seven each) SG Cattenach, Campbells Forest (six) Red Gum Southdown, Winchelsea (five).
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.
