THE rain tumbled down during Oakbank Merino and Poll Merino stud's recent on-property ram sale at Gre Gre North.
"It rained about 40 millimetres the day after last year's ram sale and five days later we got another 70mm," Oakbank stud co-principal Warren McCrae said prior to the sale commencing.
"It's good to see it here today too after a bit of a dry spell."
It was all smiles after the sale as well for Mr McCrae after 76 of 84 rams sold to a top of $6000 and an average of $2437.
Despite a drop in average compared to last year, Mr McCrae said he expected prices to be cheaper this year.
"We'd say it was a good sale, and since the year has been going the way it has, we expected sheep returns to not be as good," he said.
"We have had three or four clients lease their farms or are slowly downsizing, but we also picked up a few new clients as well, and were happy with the results."
Mr McCrae said there looked to be just enough rain in a band that swept across the majority of Victoria on Tuesday to have good feed "kick along" for sheep preparation for next year.
"We'll have five harvests in a row, and the sheep will have good, strong feed and while last year there was a lot of growth, there had been times when it had been dry."
He said he also liked to keep things "down the middle of the road" in terms of genetics.
"I don't chase too many facts; last year they said they didn't need wool because mutton and wool would have paid for it all, but things have slowed there because there's a lot of them," he said.
"We sheared some sheep in March to sell forward a bit at Bendigo and some of them are here, but the rest are just straight out of the paddock, and have been on grass since June with no feeders at all."
The top-priced ram was Lot 3, PW-8, which sold for $6000 to regular buyer Wayne Jones, Donald.
The 19.9-micron, August 2022-drop ram weighed 103 kilograms and had wool measurements of 2.8 standard deviation, a coefficient variation of 14.3 and a comfort factor of 99.7 per cent.
Mr Jones said his own commercial flock had come a long way since he had started buying from Oakbank.
"I've been a regular buyer for 15 years here, and the bloodlines have suited my situation and the wool has been very nice," he said.
"I've always been very happy with it."
Mr Jones, who also bought the second-highest lot, Lot 45, PG/GR 394, for $5000, said he always focused on buying up to a good standard and he tried to keep at that level for the quality of his stock.
