A kick in the popularity of the Dohne breed saw the Harewood Dohne ram sale clear 67 per cent of the draft at their first auction on-property at Woodlands near Armidale on Monday.
Of the 39 rams offered, nine registered bidders purchased 27 rams pushing prices to a high of $1600 and average of $888.
The versatility of the dual purpose breed coupled with the structural correctness and wool quality of the Harewood rams were comments all buyers in attendance shared - along with naming the stud as one of "the best keep secrets" in the Dohne industry.
Top price buyer, Patrick White, Alvaholme, Narromine, has been an advocate for Harewood and the stud's breeding program since 2007.
"We had a straight Merino self-replacing flock, since introducing the Dohne the fertility has improved dramatically giving us more culls to sell and allowing us to keep our foot in the door with the wool," he said.
"We now have a primarily straight Dohne operation."
Purchasing four rams in total, Mr White selected lot 10 as his top pick complimenting the ram's "nice shape and wool quality".
Weighing 80 kilograms the 2017-drop ram sired by HW142008 measured an ASBV weaning weight (WWT) of 5.6, and eye muscle depth (PEMD) and fat measure (PFAT) of 0.9, a clean fleece weight (YCFW) of 19.6, fiber diameter (YFD) of 0.3 and Dohne+ Index of 157.4.
Joining 1600 ewes annually, Mr White directs the wether portion into his own lamb feedlot operation.
"The Dohne's perform well in the feedlot and particularly the Harewood genetics, they match up against some of the industry tops," he said.
"I averaged $180/hd for Dohne wethers lambs weighing 26kg through TFI in Tamworth recently."
Harewood genetics also hit the mark at the 2018 Dubbo Show Hoof and Hook competition taking out champion Dohne Lambs for the Gibbs family, Beltana Partnership, Naromine.
"The lambs averaged 67.6kg live with a carcass weight of 34.83kg and a dressing percentage of 50.36 per cent," Mr Gibbs.
Windy Ridge Farms, Inverell, returned and secured the second-top price ram, a HW131836 son for $1400.
Charlie and Vicki Zammit, Thirldene, Barraba, returned and paid $800 each for two rams, one for their Dohne ewe flock and one for their Merino ewes.
"They have a nice bright wool and well covered frame," Mrs Zammit said.
"We are down to our core breeding stock of 400 ewes, but the Harewood rams fit well into our 18-19 micron operation and add fram size to our Fine wool Merino ewes."
The Porter family, St Elmo, Armidale, secured six rams to average $867 and the Finlayson family, Narromine loaded five rams at $800 each.
The sale was conducted by Armitage and Buckley with Luke Heagney as auctioneer.