AT the annual Kurralea Poll Dorset and White Suffolk ram sale at Ariah Park, NSW, 60 successful bidders from four states provided tight competition, especially for large flock rams.
In the end, all 309 head offered cleared to a $1301 average.
After achieving a national-record Poll Dorset ram price of $28,000 last year, it was the flock ram result that captured the headlines this year.
Stud buyers locked in bargain after bargain. Mark and Peter Yates, Barwon Poll Dorset stud, Yerong Creek, paid $8500 to secure the sale topper. The 136-kilogram K120028Tw is an April-drop son of UP 080185 and prize-winner at Adelaide and Bendigo this year.
In the White Suffolk stud ram offering, buyers of last year’s $7000 ram topper, Chatsworth House, Chatsworth, Vic, paid the equal top this year.
They paid $5000 for K120036Tw, an impressive and high-performing son of K100223 with a Carcase Plus index of 189, highlighted by a post weaning weight growth EBV of 14.8 and a muscling EBV of +1.1. They also picked up a $1500 bargain later in the draft.
The 129 Poll Dorset flock rams sold in two drafts to a top of $1600 and average $1174, while 135 White Suffolk flock rams sold to a top of $1400, which was received 14 times and averaged $1125.
Courtesy of Ian Turner, Stock & Land
