THE Mudgee Merino ram sale has been a happy hunting ground for Ron James, "Ferndale", Mudgee for many years.
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Mr James has been purchasing rams from the sale for his Merino ewe flock for as long as he can remember.
"My father used to buy rams there, and he died in 1970 so that's how long we've been buying there," Mr James said.
He said it was the quality of the sheep on offer at the sale that kept him coming back each year.
"The studs bring their best superfine rams, and they come to us."
While Mr James liked to be able to compare the rams on offer from the different studs, he had stuck with genetics from the Rayner family's Grathlyn Merinos, Har- graves, for the past 30 years.
"The flock is now pure Grathlyn blood," Mr James said.
"Their wool is the most suitable style for my sheep."
Mr James runs about 1000 Merinos on the 529-hectare property, of which he is the third generation of the family to operate.
While Mr James said the superfine wool market wasn't as strong as it had been in the past, he had stuck to producing it on the property.
"The property's not suitable to run much else," he said.
"It's not as good as the country around Pyramul and Hargraves for growing top wool but it still grows good superfine wool."
Mr James said he sold his wool through the auction system after shearing in August, and usually it sold "fairly well".
"Last year we got up to 1400 cents a kilogram for it," he said.
The property comprises of native pastures, while Mr James has another small property on the opposite side of Mudgee where he grows lucerne hay, which is fed to the sheep along with bought-in grain when conditions are dry.