Easy-finishing rams with good eye muscle area and butt shape attracted strong buyer interest at Gooramma Poll Dorset sale at Galong on Friday.
Several agents were kept busy during the stud section of the sale with good competition ringside, as well as via phone bids, including several from Western Australia.
All 12 stud rams offered were sold to a top of $10,000 to average $4750, while 93 of the flock rams sold from the 98 offered to top at $2200 and average $1431.
In total, the 105 stud and flock rams averaged $1811, with the remaining five rams from the 110 cataloged sold straight after the sale.
The sale topper went to Victorian buyer, Matt Tonissen, Chrome Sheep Studs, Hamilton.
Mr Tonissen said he had used Windamere T-bone, a New Zealand sire that was also the maternal grandsire of Gooramma's $10,000 ram, three years ago.
"He bred extremely well for us, so when I've been looking for a new stud sire, I've been pretty keen on the Gooramma sheep," he said.
"As a prime lamb industry we want those early maturing lambs with the depth and hindquarter muscling.
"You don't get paid for big, long legs - you get paid for carcase."
His new purchase, Gooramma 404-2018, by Gooramma Guru 308-16, with a post weaning eye muscle depth breeding value of 2.945, will be used in the Icon Poll Dorset stud, which is one of the flocks run under the Chrome Sheep Studs business.
The aim is to breed rams which Icon's spring-breeding clients can use to produce 18 to 24 kilogram lambs as early as possible while being finished on grass.
Brad and Karen Dawson of Charja Poll Dorsets, Crookwell, paid the second highest price of $6250 for Gooramma 241-2018.
This was another Guru son and again bred from a T-Bone daughter and was presented with an eye muscle breeding value of 2.005.
Mr Dawson said he liked the ram's little bit of body wrinkle, tight skin and muscling.
The Dawons run about 140 stud ewes and this was their first Gooramma ram.
Their stud ewes are used to breed rams for their 1700 first-cross ewes, with the aim of having the lambs turned off by about five months of age to sell through the Yass saleyards or through the Goulburn abattoir.
The Dawsons also paid the $2200 top flock ram price in addition to their stud purchase.
Volume buyer, Craig Heffernan, the Pinnacle, Bialla near Gunning, bought 11 lots to a top of $1800, twice, to average $1645.
He will use his draft of new rams in his flock of 2400 Border Leicester/Merino ewes, down from his usual 3000 due to the drought.
Mr Heffernan was seeking rams that would breed lambs he could finish on their dams for the sucker market to target Breakout River Meats, Cowra.
"They're the type of lamb you can finish, especially for the sucker market at four to five months old averaging 22-24kg," he said.
"They've just got good muscling on the hindquarter and a good eye muscle area."
Vendor James Corcoran said it was an incredible sale, the strong result for the stud also being a reflection on the strength of the prime lamb industry.
"It was certainly humbling to know that we have some very high quality studs and operations purchasing here," he said.
"I think people do like the more moderate sheep and that was evident today."
The sale was conducted by Landmark and Bassingtwaite Livestock and Property Marketing (BLPM), Cootamundra, with Rick Power and Charlie Croker from Landmark, and Lachlan Bassingthwaite from BLPM as auctioneers.