FOR the first time in three years the 'grass fed bred' motto of the Egelabra team based at Warren was clear to see with the 158 sale rams making it to the natural pastures to walk and grow out.
Eight specially selected March shorn rams sold to a top of $9000 and averaged $5375, 150 April shorn rams sold to a top of $6000 and averaged $2848 a 100 per cent clearance was achieved by the last hammer drop on Wednesday.
John Kater, Egelabra felt they could have had more rams to sell.
"At the end it kicked a bit, at the end of a sale it normally lags, we could have had another 30 rams and had them all go easily," Mr Kater said.
"I believe the Merino industry has a focus by different people to move to a certain fad or certain way.
"We need to move with the times with the science and technology but we also need to stay to the basics. The factors of that are surrounding the environment we run these sheep in, conformation, the need to eat and walk and reproduce, that is where we as wool producers secure our income."
The top priced ram, 92 kilogram Egelabra 191612, sired by Egelabra 15.0465, held a 20.2 micron fleece, a 99.5 per cent comfort factor (CF), a greasy fleece weight (GFW) of 139 percent and eye muscle depth (EMD) of 32 millimetres.
He sold to commercial operator Dave Motley, HM Lowe and Company, Nyngan.
Joining about 5500 ewes and averaging a 19 to mid 20 micron, Mr Motley was looking for good wool cut and bright wool.
"We have been buying here for about 38 years now, we are also improving lambing percentages and fertility," he said.
Volume buyer, Pete Schuster, Benalong Holdings, Dubbo was looking for a particular type.
"We are moving away from mulesing, and are looking for a good plain bodied sheep that is wide across the back, easy care and low maintenance and has frame and constitution to carry the wool," Mr Schuster said.
"Egelabra gives you consistency. You know that the sheep will be true to type and while we can make incremental change we know we will have consistency across the whole flock."
The sale was conducted by Nutrien and Elders with Paul Dooley manning the rostrum.
See The Land next week for the full report.