AN increased demand for quality Dorper rams was clear to see at the 2021 Dorper Sheep Society's Eastern region sale in Dubbo.
Friday's sale achieved a 100 per cent clearance rate as the 76 rams on offer were snapped up at an average of $2895.
During the multi-vendor sale, 37 white Dorper rams were sold at an average of $3264, while the remaining 39 Dorper rams averaged $2545.
The live-auction sale conducted by Nutrien and auctioneered by John Settree and Brad Wilson, attracted 33 registered bidders from across the state and as far away as Queensland and Victoria.
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Dubbo stud Belowrie topped the white Dorper section, as three rams were sold for $7250 each to the Crozier family of Marfield Station, Ivanhoe, the Southern family of Lyloia, Thallon, Queensland and Alvalea Dorpers of Roma, Queensland.
The three rams (tags 190073, 190082 and 190084) weighed 96.5kg, 107kg and 94kg respectively, had an EMM of 45, 44 and 48 respectively and had fat scores of 5.5, eight and 6.5 respectively.
Belowrie principal David Piper said he was thrilled to see all vendors achieve a perfect clearance rate.
"It is absolutely humbling to have topped the sale overall," Mr Piper said.
"Honestly, you're normally pretty happy if you just sell all of your rams, but to get that price and for our average overall for our 10 rams to be more than $5500 was fantastic.
"It is really satisfying to see buyers coming from not just our local region but far and wide as well.
"Hopefully next year it can continue to grow and we can entice more buyers to come down and have a look."
The equal-top-priced white Dorper ram was just one of the 10 rams the Coziers bought during the sale at an average of $4875.
Other prolific buyers included Marda Partnership, of Lake Cargelligo, which purchased 13 rams at an average of $2346, Prince Livestock of Geandale Station, Cobar which bought 11 rams at an average of $2068 and the Leadbitter family of Mudgee, which took home seven rams at an average of $2250.
Buying on behalf of Marda Partnership was Elders stock agent Colin Fisher, Lake Cargelligo, who said this year's sale marked the third-straight year the partnership had bought rams at Dubbo.
"They are really high-quality sheep here and all of the vendors have great sheep, so it's easy for us to choose what we like, regardless of who has bred them," Mr Fisher said.
"There's big demand for quality and you have to buy quality to breed quality, so the plan for these guys going forward is to continue breeding top-notch sheep for market.
"We keep a lot of the ewe lambs and sell a lot when we have a surplus and I think the meat-bred lamb market could go a long way this year.
"Getting shearers is a struggle for our wool sheep, in fact I think it is on a knife edge to be honest, so in the next 10 years Dorpers could be anywhere."
Meanwhile, fellow vendor Nomuula Dorpers was the top buyer in the Dorper section, taking home the Prieska-bred ram (tag number D802 190598), which weighed 87kg, had an EMM of 46 and a fat score of three, for $5000.
Nomuula principal Cherilyn Lowe said the ram would "have some nice ewes to cover" at the stud's Moonbi property near Tamworth.
"The demand for Dorpers is massive at the moment," Ms Lowe said.
"I think the demand is only going to get bigger because the amount of requests I get daily is amazing.
"Honestly, if we had truckloads of them I think we could sell them all.
"A lot of people want good quality, want to upgrade their flocks and there is few better places to get quality than here at this sale."
- Read the full report in next week's edition of The Land.
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