Local and international buyers dominate at Sheepmaster Parent Stud's second sale

There was solid demand from local buyers throughout the Sheepmaster Parent Stud's second NSW sale at Woodstock on February 13, with a handful of rams heading interstate and across the water.

The sale reached a top price of $8000 and averaged $2236 for 55 of 57 rams sold.

The $8000 top-priced ram, Sheepmaster 241229, sold to Mat Macrae, Whitespurs Partnership, Masterden, New Zealand, who was bidding online through StockLive.

The May-2024 drop was born a twin, with his mother born a triplet, and weighed 91 kilograms. He recorded a weaning weight of +9.71 and +16.32 post-weaning weight.

Mr Macrae had had his eye on the ram for a few months.

"Mat came over to our sale in November last year, he wanted to see the sheep," Andrew Hodgson, stud principal of Sheepmaster Parent Stud said.

"On the strength of that Mat bought a significant amount of semen, he is doing a big AI program.

"He rang up, he was particularly interested in lot six, as we know that ram's mother.

"She was a triplet, she had twins while she still had lambs teeth, and the combined body weight of those twins was more than her body weight."

Mr Hodgson said the ewe had twins every eight months that weaned more than her body weight.

Online bidders OG Pastrol, Nhill, Victoria, paid the second top price of $6500 for Sheepmaster 240536, 81.4kg.

He recorded a weaning weight of +12.5 and +19.15 post-weaning weight.

OG Pastrol also purchased Sheepmaster 240553, 75.8kg, for $5000. He recorded a weaning weight of +8.87 and +14.64 post-weaning weight.

Other buyers included local NSW bidder Simon Brabin, TS and EJ Brabin, Eurongilly, who bought eight lots each at $1500.

Richard Hoare, Karabran Pastrol Company, Nyngan, averaged $1571 for his draft of seven, paying to $2000 for Sheepmaster 240281.

Western Australian buyers Baboo Pastrol Company, Greenrange, averaged $2500 for six rams, and Yilgarnia, Redmond, WA, averaged $1667 also for six rams.

Victorian buyers also dominated the sale, with 11 of the 55 rams sold heading to Victoria.

All up, 22 lots were sold online.

Andrew Hodgson, Sheepmaster Parent Stud, said he was really happy. The stud was sold in October 2023, with their inaugural NSW sale held last November.

"We're a new stud, we haven't been here 12 months, I'm really happy," he said.

"We've got new clients, people are starting to see what these sheep benefit, how they can help them in their existing shedding operation.

"We realise that Rome wasn't built in a day, I'm pretty happy with how it's going."

Elders NSW Stud Stock and Sheep Specialist, Andrew Miller, said it was a good result with the top ram selling as expected.

"If he was here in November, he probably would have made a bit more, but they're two different sales," he said.

"But we're very happy with that, it's pretty close to what we discussed."

He was pleased with the number of return clients and the amount of new areas that had expressed interest.

Elders conducted the sale with guest auctioneer Paul Dooley, Tamworth. StockLive provided the online interface.