Western Nudie ram knocked down for nearly $6000 in unusual online auction

Increased interest in shedding sheep has resulted in clearance rates being maintained at a western Victorian Nudie producer's annual ram sale.

Low Footprint Lamb, Croxton East, offered 130 rams through an online Helmsman auction, which opened on Friday, November 29 and ran until 2pm on Monday, December 2.

The top-priced ram, Lot 1, sold for $5600 to John Keiller, another leading Nudie producer of Cashmore Park, Cashmore.

Stud principal Matt Kelly said the sale averaged $1844.

Last year, the stud also sold 95 rams out of 130 on offer to a top of $10,000 for an average of $1809, another 73 per cent clearance.

"He was 167 on MCP+, which is maternal composite and worm index, which was 10 index points better than the next ram," Mr Kelly said.

"He is a bit of a stand out on his performance figures."

The September 2023-drop ram had a birth-weight (BWT) of 0.34 kilograms, a weaning weight (WWT) of 9.23kg and post-weaning weight (PWT) of 14.4kg.

His post-weaning eye muscle depth (PEMD) was 1.71 millimetres, and post-weaning fat measurement was -0.05mm.

He had a lean meat yield (LMY) of 6.46, a shear force 5 of 5.13 and intramuscular fat (IMF) measurement of -0.75 per cent.

"He is a very strong, and early shedder, so he will breed a lot of wool off woolly sheep, I think the main driver in his appeal is his performance numbers," Mr Kelly said.

The ram attracted 28 bids.

Mr Keiller said the ram was "a nice structured animal, with a strong shedding ability, a short staple length and good balance of traits with high index.

"He will go into the study to corrective mate and balance up other ewes, to take our breeding program forward in the direction we wish it to go."

He said he had bought sheep from Low Footprint before.

"They have been good, sound, robust animals."

Low Footprint was about an hour north of Cashmore.

"We are down on the coast, at Portland, so it is a similar environment," Mr Keiller said.

"He will be a good animal in a high rainfall, parasite-challenged area that just always needs some fast-growing sheep, with lots of lambs.

"I am sure he will be a useful animal in taking Nudie sheep into the future, where they are headed quite strongly."

Mr Kelly said it was the fourth time Low Footprint had sold rams through an online auction on StockLive.

"I like that sort of a system; it gives people the opportunity to move up and down the list, whereas with a live auction, you have either missed a lot or bought a lot, and you might decide that wasn't the best choice," Mr Kelly said.

He opened the auction several days before it finished to allow potential bidders to look at the rams.

"Essentially, the game starts when the countdown starts," he said.

It was the fourth sale run under that system.

"I think it works well," he said.

Mr Kelly said that while the top price was down, it was probably because "there is less money in the industry at the moment".