*24 of 59 rams sold to $1900 (three times), av $1295
CLEAR HILLS stud principal Graeme Hooper each year comes a long way to sell his selection of Southdown rams at Hamilton.
This year 59 rams took the nearly five-hour trip from his town of Goorambat, which has now become a tradition.
This year's sale had moderate success, with most rams that did get sold not going past $1000.
But for the lots which did get past $1500, bidding was strong, with three rams selling for $1900 in the pick-of-the-pen sale.
"Those that did buy rams, bought well," Mr Hooper said.
"It just wasn't enough competition here to go right down the line, and that happens at times."
Mr Hooper was confident that there would be demand for his rams into early 2023.
"Demand for Southdowns after Christmas last year was quite strong," he said.
"I cleaned them out in the end."
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Two of the top-priced rams, Lot 2, Clear Hills-210078, and Lot 3, Clear Hills-210457, were sold to Ardonachie Holdings, Macarthur, while the third was Lot 6, Clear Hills-210149, secured by L & J Menzel, Elo Vera, Hamilton.
Lot 2 had Australian Sheep Breeding Values 0.18 for birth weight (BWT), 12.92 for post-weaning weight (PWWT) and -0.49 for post-weaning eye muscle depth (PEMD).
Lot 3 recorded a BWT of 0.19, a PWWT of 9.11, and a PEMD of 0.12, while Lot 6 recorded a BWT of 0.13, a PWWT of 7.00 and a PEMD of 0.71.
All rams that were not passed were sold to local agents.
Mr Hooper said it was worth making the trip and thanked everyone who came.
"We are still getting good demand to sell these rams at home and I think it'll still be easy to sell them at home or elsewhere," he said.
"They'll become more available to others so one farmer's loss is another one's gain."
Volume buyers included Abbey Hills, Hawkesdale, who bought six rams for a total of $9000, as well as Ardonachie, who bought four rams, spending $5800.
Mr Hooper said his season has been a bit "up and down", and the wet meant not many grains went in, but it was not a huge loss for the stud.
"There was one day there where I was marooned by the Broken River flood, but that went down, but for us, it's a balancing up of the last 25 years of dry weather," he said.
He was optimistic about the evolving nature of his business, saying a new direct marketing lamb enterprise selling processed lamb direct to customers was becoming a "hugely interesting" sector.
