THE wind and rain did not stop a good crowd attending the third annual Lach River Merino and Poll Merino ram sale last Wednesday.
A total of 47 of 60 rams sold for a 78 per cent clearance at auction, with further sales after the hammer fell.
The sale averaged $1707 with the top price of $5000 was reached for the first ram offered.
A 124 kilogram son of the foundation sire and Australian Ram of the Year in 2012, Calender, he was purchased by the Winton family, Cowra.
He measured 18.5 in the micron, 2.8 standard deviation (SD), 15.1pc fibre diameter coefficient of variation (CV) and 99.6pc comfort factor.
Lach River principal Richard Chalker described the ram as a stand out.
“His size, his frame, he has a good square back end on him; he is great,” he said.
The Wintons also purchased another seven rams to a draft average of $1594.
Paul Kelly purchased on behalf of the family.
Also a volume buyer was Melrose Pastoral with their draft of eight averaging $2125 for a top price of $3250.
Graham Wallace, Melrose Pastoral, Cowra, has been purchasing rams from the stud for about five years.
He liked the fact they were putting the wool back on his sheep and bulking them up.
“They are good big bulky rams who cut a lot of wool,” he said.
“We like to fill bales, these sheep do this nicely for us.
“We are moving totally over to their bloodlines.”
Also purchasing in quantity, was D Flannery from Wyangala Dam. His draft of six topped at $1500 twice, averaging $1250.
Lach River principal Richard Chalker said he was pleased with the sale.
“The way the climate has been it has been hard for people who want big numbers to buy them,” he said.
“We were up on our last sale so that was good.”
Lach River shore 25,000 sheep last year and join about 16,000 ewes with 8000 put to Merinos and the remainder to White Suffolk rams.
Mr Chalker said they would continue to focus on producing heavy cutting wool sheep, noting they were perfect for today’s market.
“We are happy with the way our wool cut is at the moment,” he said.
“We breed our sheep for ourselves. They are working for us. This is the type of sheep we want.”
The sale was conducted by Landmark Goulbourn with Rick Power, Landmark Stud Stock, controlling the bids.