New and interstate buyers competed for Alfoxton Merino rams at the stud's annual on-property sale at Armidale on Monday.
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Overall, 50 polled and horned Merino rams sold from 59 offered to average $2100 to buyers from NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania.
The top seller was a homozygous polled ram sold to return buyer, Moo Farms, Cooma, for $7500.
The 18-month-old twin ram scanned 17.3 micron fibre diameter, with figures of 39.78 yearling greasy fleece weight and a 185.16 Merino plus index.
Moo Farms had been the 2022 top-priced buyer at Alfoxton, which was also the stud's on-property record top price.
Overall, the results where only slightly down from the previous year's sale, which averaged $2347.
Top buyers of the horned ram were a superfine wool operation from Warwick in Queensland Lyndal Schnitzerling and Kelvin Houston.
The return purchaser has previously bought Alfoxton Dohne Merino ewes and will look to cross the ram bought at the sale today to add "size resulting in a heavier cut of wool".
New buyer Ben Jackson, Guyra, purchased eight horned and polled rams to average $1916.
Other new buyers included A.D. and J.M. Cameron, East Gowrie, who purchased three rams to average $1666.
Return buyers, the Scott family, Dysart, Tas, purchased only one ram this year at $3000.
Underbidders of the top-priced ram, Milparinka Pastoral Company, Guyra, put together a draft of eight rams to average $2125.
Upon reflecting on the sale topper, Simon Croft, of Milpranka Pastoral, said it was the ram's "wool, size, plain body, good structure and the frame" that caught his eye.
"I knew he was going to be pretty popular and I'm sure he'll do a great job down south in Cooma," Mr Croft said.
"One of the things that I really like about the Alfoxton sale is their are a lot of polled rams to pick from. Horned rams are not our thing.
"We are moving from a crossbred lamb enterprise to an entirely dual purpose Merino flock, targeting those good carcase traits which will allow us to get both meat and wool from our sheep."
The Clonan family will now prepare for their Dohne sale in just seven days.
"We've got the first sons of a 7721 sire, (from which) which we will offer 38 out of a possible 80 Dohne rams next week," said stud principal Chris Clonan.
"From our open day nearly 20 days ago the rams have continued to put weight on and carried a bloomed look right on through to the sale.
"I couldn't have presented the Merino rams today any better and I was really happy how buoyant the sale was."
The sale was covered by Elders, Armidale, with Paul Dooley, Tamworth, as auctioneer.
