Australasian Dorset Championships top price goes to interstate studs

Long-time friends Stockdale Poll Dorset and White Suffolk stud principal Laurie Fairclough, York, WA, and Ridgehaven Poll Dorset stud principal Isabele Roberts, Cudal, NSW, bought the top-priced ram at the Australasian Dorset Championships sale at Bendigo.

Of the 39 lots offered at the multi-vendor sale, 29 sold to the $16,000 top price, recording an average price of $5324.

Mr Fairclough said he would take the top-priced Sunnybanks Poll Dorset ram home, while Ms Roberts would have semen from the ram for her stud program.

She said they both found value in the ram for each of their different studs.

The Lot 18 ram, 220009, had estimated breeding values which included a 0.39 kilograms birth weight, 9.9kg weaning weight, 14.9kg post-weaning weight, post eye muscle depth of 2.2 per cent, and post fat depth of -0.2pc.

Mr Fairclough said he managed 200 ewes and thought the ram would serve their stud well for the needs of their commercial breeders and buyers.

Ms Roberts said she managed about 900 stud ewes.

"We also run a progeny trial for an association too so we do a huge amount of carcase testing," she said.

"There's a couple of things about this ram, most importantly structurally, he's almost perfect in terms of his structure, he's a very appealing ram, he has depth in his hindquarter.

"There's real value in that ram not just for the stud industry, but the commercial industry as well.

"We were both having a look, and sometimes you find an animal like that and you just need to buy it."

She said they found strong intramuscular fat carcase attributes from the Sunnybanks stud.

Mr Fairclough said they had both bought Sunnybanks' rams before which had performed well in both of their studs, so they had confidence in the stud.

"We've used Sunnybanks rams before and they always come up really well," he said.

Stockdale Poll Dorset and White Suffolk stud will host its ram sale on September 20, while Ridgehaven Poll Dorset stud's is on September 14.

Sunnybanks Poll Dorset and White Suffolk stud principal Paul Day, Penguin, Tas, said he felt "pumped" to achieve the top price of the sale.

"We come to the show every year to exhibit our stock and to get the top-priced ram and champion intermediate ram is a real buzz," he said.

"The judges like his overall correctness, he has plenty of length, nice clean points and he's a really-good Dorset type.

"We're only a small stud, we have 100 ewes in the north-west coast of Tassie, we bought six rams over and sold them all."

Mr Day said they were looking forward to their November 13 ram sale.

Elders agent Ryan Bajada said the sale was "very, very good" considering market conditions at the moment.

Mr Bajada said given the sale was branded as an elite sale, studs from across the country typically bought their best stock forward.

"It's good to see that breeders still want to put their produce forward," he said.

"And they're getting rewarded."

He said it was clear there was still confidence in quality Poll Dorset genetics.

"We sold stock into Victoria, NSW, Tasmania and even to WA," he said.