Coryule Merino ram sale had a solid sale with volume buyers

The stud sold 35 of the 50 rams offered, averaging $2000 overall.

Lot 1 made the highest price of $4500, which was purchased by Susan Stribling and Michael Phelan, Flat Rock, Euroa.

Unable to make the sale themselves, Nutrien fine wool specialist Ted Wilson, Ararat, represented Flat Rock and said they were looking for a "strong-bodied ram" to integrate into their flock as they continued to transition from horned genetics.

"That ram they'll breed rams from themselves," Mr Wilson said.

"And he's a big, heavy-cutting sheep with the style of wool that they want.

"And being polled helps because they were after that as well."

He said Flat Rock was working to keep its wool clip consistent amidst its transition to polled sheep.

He said the ram was a good match as it measured a micron of 16.8, while their stud typically averages 17.5 microns.

The ram also had a standard deviation of +3.2, a 99.6 per cent comfort factor, a coefficient of variation of 19.1, and was sired by GC170080 out of dam 170436.

Coryule Merino stud manager Craig Trickey said Lot 1 was from a particularly-desirable flush, as he was one of 28 high-performing Merinos from the cross.

"So this [top price] backed up how well that ewe and that cross has actually gone," Mr Trickey said.

"We've done that flush now for three years.

"We sold our top-priced ram at the Australian Sheep & Wool show which was an embryo transfer brother too."

He said he was happy with the result of the sale, following on from a successful show season.

"You've got be really happy with the way it's turned out, and the return clients that are coming back to buy our sheep," he said.

Volume buyer Jonathan Keith, Glenlogie, purchased seven rams at the sale.

Mr Keith was also transitioning to polled genetics and said he had predominantly used Coryule rams for the last 11 years.

"We're specifically targeting their double-poll genetics, and we've been doing that for the last seven or eight years," he said.

Mr Keith runs his sheep through an automated handler system, so he said polled genetics were easier on the machinery and sensors.

"We used to breed our own rams and the reason we moved here to buy rams is we're trying to get more body weight and more fleece weight while we maintain an under 17.5-micron fleece average, which we've done," he said.

"In the last 10 years, we've increased our average fleece weight by sort of 1.5-2 kilograms.

"We've increased our animal's body weight by probably 10-15kg, and we've decreased our micron by about 0.5."