![Banksia stud co-principal Deb Morrison with the top-priced ram from their recent sale. Picture by Andrew Miller Banksia stud co-principal Deb Morrison with the top-priced ram from their recent sale. Picture by Andrew Miller](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/7f5GEYimwWveccZe67yRBS/21687ef5-fbf6-46dc-ac2d-cc6e97486edf.JPG/r0_245_4800_3200_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
A Winchelsea vineyard, for whom running meat sheep is a secondary "hobby" has paid the top price for an Aussie White ram from a Murghebuloc stud.
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Banksia Aussie Whites held its annual sale on the last day of autumn, with most purchasers coming from the local area, stud co-principal Deb Morrison said.
Banksia sold 11 of the 19 rams it offered at auction, to $2200, for an average of $786.
The top selling ram, lot 3, was a twin, Banksia 230063, by RH 210006 Optimus out of Red Hill 210502.
The May, 2023-drop ram weighed 91.5 kilograms on May 3, this year.
He had a fat measurement of 3.5 and eye muscle depth (EMD) of 36 millimetres.
The ram went to Pondelowie Vineyards, Bambra, south of Winchelsea, in the Otways.
"They were looking for something with a lot of length and capacity, certainly something that adds more meat to their operation," Ms Morrison said.
"Our preference is to grow our rams out to 12 months.
"As a smaller business, it's certainly more manageable to have them off before winter."
She said Aussie White ewes could be joined any time of the year, and there had been a growing demand for rams.
"We've always had a demand for rams, right through autumn, and that is a bit of a point of difference, for us," she said.
Ms Morrison said at previous sales rams generally went to other studs, or were purchased producers running sheep on smaller blocks or with smaller flocks.
Ms Morrison said Pondelowie also picked up a draft of five stud ewes.
"They have been in Aussie Whites for a while, and they are just expanding their flock," Ms Morrison said.
Pondalowie co-owner Dominic Morris said he picked up two rams.
"We run fat lambs and are trying to improve our genetics," he said.
"We liked the length and shape of those rams particularly.
"It was really just new blood and we are very impressed with Banksia's main sire (Optimus) they bought a couple of years ago," Mr Morris said.
"We waited patiently until the progeny came on and this was the first sale they had with his rams and ewes."
Mr Morris said the sheep operation was ancillary to the vineyard - "it's sort of our hobby, our main focus is wine".
He said it was decided to run shedding sheep, for ease of maintenance, with lambs being sold to Herds, Geelong.
"We like the idea you know what your price is going to be, per kilogram, carcase weight, before they leave the property," he said.
"The fact that Banksia is local too is good for us, because they know our conditions, it's very cold and wet down where we are.
"If a ram survives for 12 months, without much care down this way, he should do pretty well."
Good feet and structure were also very important, "we are not really that interested in having sheep that are high maintenance," he said.