The Makeham family's North South Border Leicester stud saw two rams go under the hammer for $3000 at their 5th on property sale.
The stud, near Young, sold 58 of the 66 rams offered for an average of $1317, the draft including 10 select rams that sold for an average of $1889, and six grade rams.
The first lot of the day was the first to reach $3000, North South 80203 sold to Neil and Grace Kroehn of Belmont Border Leicester stud, Springton, South Australia.
North South stud principal, Simon Makeham said they had seen more interest from South Australian studs since their sheep had performed well on the South Australian show circuit.
The ram had a birth-weight of 0.44, weaning weight of 3.6, post weaning weight of 5.4, PFAT of -0.6, eye muscle depth of -1.1, number of lambs weaned of 2 per cent and Border Leicester Cross Index of 107.3.
The second top priced-ram went to the McFarlane family of Young after a determined bidding war.
Mr Makeham said both the $3000 rams were sired by North South 228, a 2015 ram that they had had a lot of success with.
"He goes all the way back to one of our original lines, a very meaty ram that traditionally gets really heavy sheep," Mr Makeham said.
The McFarlane's purchase, North South 80163 had a BWT of 0.24, WWT of 5.2, PWT of 8.4, PFAT of -0.3, PEMD of -1, NLW of 9pc and BLX of 120.9.
His Border Leicester Cross Index of 120.9 classified him as a Super Border.
Donald McFarlane said they had been buying from North South since the stud started and they picked out this ram for his conformation.
"Everything about him was what we wanted, I really look at conformation and he fitted the bill," Mr McFarlane said.
"We've been absolutely delighted with the North South rams and we had a very good example last weekend at Forbes saleyards, there was a big yarding and there were a lot of first cross lambs but I thought ours stood out in conformation and body shape, all because of these rams.
"The rams are also retaining their viability for years, which is a big plus with Border Leicesters."
Mr McFarlane said they had been predominantly a cropping operation but were now moving to be a predominantly fat lamb operation.
"We run half Merino ewes and half first cross ewes, we bought the rams to put over our Merino ewes," Mr McFarlane said.
Mr Makeham said they had found their focus on the number of lambs weaned and early maturing sheep was really paying off.
"Our sheep are very muscly and well put together but we haven't lost the wool on our sheep," Mr Makeham said.
"We aim to give our clients the option to breed a fat lamb or first cross ewe."
Volume buyers included first time purchasers the Sturgiss family of Kooradale, Koorawatha who took home nine rams.
Pete Sturgiss said they planned to join the rams to their 1500 Merino ewes to produce their own first cross ewes for their fat lamb operation.
"We really liked the meat on the North South rams, they're well-built rams with beautiful hind quarters on them," Mr Sturgiss said.
Other volume buyers included Elders Cootamundra who bought 10, the Tiverton Partnership, Harden who purchased seven and Yackerboon Pty Ltd, Manildra who took home six rams.
The sale was conducted by Gerrard and Partners Livestock with Paul Dooley on the gavel.
- Full report in next week's edition of The Land.
