Agriculture
18 September, 2024
More buyers bid at ram auction
LOCAL buyers dominated bidding at Friday’s Kerrilyn Merino and Poll Merino Stud’s on-property sale. Top price for the second year was paid by Brendon Lanfranchi, of Mt Hooghly, near Dunolly. He was one of 25 registered bidders for Helmsman-style...
LOCAL buyers dominated bidding at Friday’s Kerrilyn Merino and Poll Merino Stud’s on-property sale.
Top price for the second year was paid by Brendon Lanfranchi, of Mt Hooghly, near Dunolly.
He was one of 25 registered bidders for Helmsman-style auction where farmers bid silently against the clock.
Kerrilyn’s Norm Weir said it was the largest number of bidders in the stud’s sale history.
Mr Lanfranchi said his only purchase was selected for its traits of soft and white wool crimp.
”I’m chasing the wool cut in my flock that averages 19 microns,” he said.
The April 2023-drop ram had 19.1 micron wool, standard deviation 2.5 per cent, co-efficient of variation 13.1 per cent, spinning factor 17.5 per cent and he had a comfort factor of 99.8 per cent.
The ram, a twin win, weighed 90 kilograms.
“Norm’s sheep are renowned for being heavy wool cutters,” Mr Lanfranchi said. The ram will be part of his farm’s program joining 3500 ewes.
Mr Lanfranchi is a regular buyer of Kerrilyn rams. Mr Weir said he was generally pleased with the sale’s result that saw a clearance of 31 of 43 rams offered, for a $1564 average.
He said local support was again to the fore with most buyers coming from central Victoria.
There was one new buyer from Ararat at the sale.
Mr Weir said farmers liked the Helsman-style auction. “We got up to offering over 60 rams at one stage, things were going well and we went to the open bid style auction,” he said.
“After a couple of years, two or three, the buyers had a voted and we went back to Helmsman..”
Mr Weir said he had been pleased with the stud’s sale offering this year.
“The rams all presented well, they had a finer average than last year and were also bigger,” he said.
“They were also generally stronger with more weight ... they had come from better lambing.”
Mr Weir also said he was pleased with the increase in registered bidders.
“There have been quite a few around the area move out of sheep and into cropping,” he said.
Multiple buyers took home two rams from the auction.
The lower clearance rate reflected this season’s ram auctions across the Loddon.
Poor seasonal conditions and weak wool prices have impacted sales in Victoria, New South Wales and Victoria throughout the spring selling season.