Lamb producers looking to speed up their flock rebuild after years of drought wasted no time in securing rams from the Gates family when their annual auction made a return outside of Uralla on Tuesday.
Drought impacted the Gates Performance Genetics traditional sale of maternal composite and White Suffolk rams last year but the 2021 draft of 134 head wasn't difficult to shift as the lamb market continues to fire.
Rick, Julie and Sam Gates sold 80 of 81 maternal composite rams under the hammer to average $1780 and top at $3800 while 51 of 53 White Suffolk rams averaged $1120 and topped at $2100.
Stud principal Rick Gates was very pleased with the result and said producers could see a quick turnaround with lambs.
"We have got several repeat buyers; once they swing over to these I don't know of anyone that goes back," he said.
"Coming out of drought everyone is down on numbers but these lamb big percentages, you can join the ewe lamb at eight months so very quickly you have got your ewe numbers back up to where you want them and take advantage of the markets and seasons when they present themselves."
Buyers who knew first hand about the success of the Gates rams was Tony and Julie Partridge of Springfield at Walcha.
They secured three maternal composite rams including the $3800 top who boasted growth figures in the top 10 per cent of the breed and an impressive worm resistance (PWEC) of -69.
Their other two purchases were worth $3500 and $2100 with low birth weight a key focus in their selection.
The Partridges turned to Gates genetics in 2016 and now join their ewes at just seven months. They currently have 700 ewes but were looking to gradually build their numbers.
"We never pulled out any lambs last year," he said.
"It means you get the lamb on the ground earlier. Our older five-year-old ewes we tailed 190 per cent for those and young ewes around 120 per cent.
"We haven't sold any of our lambs this year. We shore them and will grow them out a bit bigger than we normally do because we have plenty of feed."
The sale started with an offering of 120 ewes aged one-and-a-half-year-old that weaned 137 per cent of lambs last month.
They were snapped up for $336/each by Bowra Pastoral Company, Willow Glen, Guyra, who also bought seven maternal composite rams averaging $1514.
AuctionsPlus started almost all of the White Suffolk draft and eventually accounted for 19 rams from the catalogue that were bound for Walcha in NSW, Tambo and Dalby in Queensland and parts of Victoria.
On the ground the biggest buying support came from SA and L Ahern, Wyoming, Guyra, with nine White Suffolk rams averaging $1155.
Young Grazing through CL Squires Inverell purchased nine maternal rams for a draft average of $1466 while Dalara Pastoral Company, Blackville, also secured nine averaging $1577.
Mr Gates said while the lamb market remained buoyant, it was fairly low risk compared to other red meats.
"We have got beef analysts predicting the beef market to take an adjustment but we haven't got anyone telling us that in the lamb," he said.
"I think those $8 and $9 for lambs over the hook is going to be around for a long time.
"We haven't got a lot of competitors that produce good lamb and these producers that are buying these good genetics are getting high lambing percentages and producing the article so they are getting paid well.
"Most of our clients now are starting to work out that investment in genetics is really worth while."
Ray White acted as agents.
Read the full report in The Land.
Lucy Kinbacher
Raised on a cattle property at Biggenden, Lucy Kinbacher has spent 10 years working across metropolitan, regional and rural publications in both Queensland and NSW. Lucy has been the editor of the Queensland Country Life and North Queensland Register since 2021.
Raised on a cattle property at Biggenden, Lucy Kinbacher has spent 10 years working across metropolitan, regional and rural publications in both Queensland and NSW. Lucy has been the editor of the Queensland Country Life and North Queensland Register since 2021.
