The ability to withstand the wet, increase wool quality and lambing rates were just some of the traits mentioned by buyers that had lured them back to the Koonwarra Merino and Poll Merino's 45th Annual Ram Sale at Boorowa.
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Held on Wednesday, buyers pushed the sale's top price to $7500 for 114 rams sold from 129 offered to average $2857. A further four rams were sold immediately post auction.
The sale topper was a March-shorn ram, K21208, by KWA Yarrawonga 062, and was the lead ram in a draft of eight bought by Ben Johnson, Somersby Pastoral, Boorowa, to average $5063.
K21208 weighed 97.3 kilograms (on September 14) and measured 18.5 micron, 4.1-micron standard deviation, 18 per cent coefficient of variation and 98.9pc comfort factor.
Mr Johnson joins about 2000 Merino ewes to Merino rams, breeding wool of 18-micron fibre diametre and his goal was to fix the Koonwarra type in his own flock, which he kicked off about nine years ago using a local flock as a base that he had the opportunity to purchase.
He had also been a client of Koonwarra since around that time.
"I'm trying to close the gap on quality with where Koonwarra is at," he said.
"They've handled the wet beautifully, they're real doers and really good mothers."
He also bought the second-top priced ram, K21245, at $7000, a son of Roseville Park 237, which 18.9 micron, with a 113pc GFW figure and 99.2pc CF.
Mr Johnson also runs first-cross ewes, which produce second-cross lambs, Angus cattle and cropping.
Emma Webb and her father, Angus Oberg, Leswell Pastoral, Tangmangaroo, bought five rams to a top of $6500 to average $4000.
They join about 1500 Merino ewes to Merino rams and have been Koonwarra clients for 14 to 15 years.
Mrs Webb said she had classed her family's ewes about a month ago and found no water damage and since they began using Koonwarra rams they had seen a noticeable improvement across their flock on several traits.
"Basically everything got better since we came to Koonwarra, the yield, the lambing percentage, the cut per head and general robustness of the sheep," she said.
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Also among the volume buyers was Danny and Donna Barker, Bombala, who have used Koonwarra rams for 20-odd years who bought eight rams to a top of $5500 to average $3969.
The couple join 2500 18- to 19-micron Merino ewes to Merino rams, plus they join about 600 cull ewes to Border Leicesters to breed first-cross lambs for sale, and all these are run alongside their herd of Angus cows.
The Willows, Cootamundra, also bought 10 rams through to a $4000, four times, to average $3300.
Stud principal, Jono Merriman, who with wife Anna took over the Koonwarra partnership in 2018, said all the sale rams had run outside all year, so had been exposed to a significant amount of rain from when they were lambs to now, but had held up well.
The sale was run by Nutrien and Elders, with Rick Power, Nutrien Stud Stock, Boorowa, as auctioneer.
