High demand for quality genetics helped Gullendah Dohne and Poll Merinos achieve a total clearance at its 41st annual on-property sale at Baldry on Tuesday.
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The bidding started off strong with the first ram of the draft, the Dohne Gullendah GD220049, reaching the top price of $6000, purchased by Uruguay Syndicate, Uruguay, South America.
The April-born ram was sired by GD209311, weighed 117 kilograms and had a fibre diameter of 17.1 micron.
Brad Wilson, Nutrien, purchasing on behalf of the Uruguay Syndicate, said the buyers saw the ram on the Dohne tour from Uruguay earlier in the year.
"They liked his scale. They said this is the type of ram that will take them forward to where they want to be," Mr Wilson said.
Local buyer, PKC Hillview, Wellington, was the successful bidder of the $5500, second top-price Dohne ram, Gullendah GD220201.
All up, 110 Dohne and 40 Poll Merino rams were offered, and sold, to reach a combined average of $2552.
In the breakdown, the Dohne rams averaged $2448 and the Poll Merinos, $2838.
The top-price Poll Merino ram was Gullendah GP222509, who was secured by Victorian buyer, Neil Robertson, Rossbridge.
The April-born ram was sired by GP201710 and weighed 96 kilograms with a fibre diameter of 18.4 micron.
Mr Robertson purchased the ram before he had looked at any figures as he was chasing phenotypic traits and structure.
He said the ram had "good, long, crimping, stylish wool with good cover."
Mr Robertson took home a total of five Poll Merino rams which averaged $4600.
The second-top price Poll Merino ram was equalled by Gullendah GP222273 and GP222251 for $5250.
Both rams were secured by Garry and Lindy Carney, Yarrawonga, Yeoval.
Mr and Mrs Carney purchased a total of six Poll Merino rams from the draft to average $3833.
Volume purchasers were both Queensland buyers, Loongana Pastoral, Longreach, and Perola Park Pastoral, Augethella.
Loongana Pastoral secured 17 rams, with two of those being Poll Merinos, to reach a $1691 average.
Perola Park Pastoral bought 10 rams to average $2700.
Another volume buyer was Bayles Bros, Cressy, Tasmania, who bought 10 rams to average $1975.
Andrew and Peter Hughes, Gullendah, were very pleased with the results of the sale.
"We were very pleased with the sale today. It was great to see a number of new buyers, both in the Dohnes and Poll Merinos," he said.
"It gives us confidence that the studs are going in the right direction."
Mr Wilson echoed this, noted there was good competition between new and repeat buyers.
"They chased the sheep that they wanted and there was a lot of depth in the draft which held the price all the way through," he said.
The sale was conducted by Nutrien with Paul Dooley as guest auctioneer.
