BELLA Lana means beautiful wool in Italian and that's certainly what buyers were looking to boost in their own flocks when buying rams at the annual Bella Lana sale on Wednesday.
Merino rams sold to a top of $4500 a head and averaged $1936 during the on-property sale near Dripstone via Wellington.
The solid result was pleasing for vendors Scott and Anna Brien who said there were many return buyers at the sale, plus a few new clients.
"The rams went to a range of different districts this year including as far south as Victoria," Mr Brien said.
All up, 81 of the 90 rams offered were sold during the auction.
Robyn Cosgrove from Rockley paid top dollar to take home the top priced ram for $4500.
Ms Cosgrove said this was only the second year she had bought rams from Bella Lana, but was impressed with the evenness of the rams ASBV figures.
"We were looking for a ram with top figures for growth, so the post-weaning (PWT) and yearling weight (YWT) figures for this ram were a standout," Ms Cosgrove said.
The ram was also in the top 10 per cent for yearling staple length (YSL) with a figure of 15.4. The son of Centre Plus 307204 was in the top 30pc for DP+ (152) and MP+ (155). It recorded a standard deviation (SD) of 2.8 micron; coefficient of variation (CV) of 13.5 per cent and comfort factor (CF) of 100pc.
Ms Cosgrove said the 17.7-micron wool ram would fit perfectly into their 18-micron self-replacing flock.
She also bid to $3500 for another ram later in the catalogue whose yearling fat ASBV was in the top 10pc while its YWT and YEMD was in the top 30pc.
MJO Rural Services, Canowindra, forked out $4000 for a 19.9-micron wool ram which was the second top priced ram.
This ram had a SD of 3; CV of 15 and CF of 99.8, plus was in the top 30pc for YSL at 12.3.
All together MJO Rural Services bought four rams for an average of $2875.
Volume buyer D and L Campbell, Wellington, bought 15 rams for a top of $3000 and average of $1733, while Bestwick Pastoral Company, Bathurst, bought eight rams for a top of $3750 and average of $2219.
The sale was conducted by Landmark Dubbo, with John Settree the auctioneer.
