Melashdan Dorpers and White Dorpers present well after trying year
A healthy average of $1733 left Melashdan Dorper and White Dorper principals Gary and Janice Fiegert pleased after their first online summer ram auction on Wednesday.
The Fiegerts, operating from Tumby Bay on the Eyre Peninsula, said selling 36 of 49 primarily 15-month-old rams to a top of $2800 was a reasonable result considering the seasonal challenges the stud and many buyers have endured.
Mr Fiegert said many of the rams went to repeat pastoral clients in the Mildura, Vic, to Broken Hill, NSW, area with some new local buyers also operating.
Melashdan enjoyed one of the best spring ram sales in SA in 2024, achieving a full clearance of 102 rams, averaging $3118 in its October sale.
That included 32 Dorpers to $6300, averaging $4053, and 70 White Dorpers to $4000, averaging $2691.
On this occasion, 18 of 23 Dorpers sold to $2800, averaging $1700, while 18 of 26 White Dorpers sold to $2200 three times, averaging $1767.
"The way the season is, we're very happy with the result," Mr Fiegert said.
"It is very dry and has been hard to sell rams anywhere south.
"The rams have done very well on failed crops here. They've just been paddock run and done extremely well.
"We normally sell them privately this time of year but decided we'd have an online sale this year."
The Fiegerts were suitably impressed with how their rams presented, saying they'd only had 215 millimetres of rain in 2024, about two thirds of their average.
Leading the sale group in terms of price was a 15-month-old Dorper ram that was knocked down for $2800.
From Burrawang bloodlines, the 92 kilogram ram had Australian Sheep Breeding Values of 3.94 for maternal weaning weight, 5.99 for weaning weight, 9.44 for post weaning weight, 1,15 for eye muscle depth, a pfat measure of -0.14 and a maternal carcase production index of 136.82.
Amongst the top-selling White Dorper rams was a 100kg 15-month-old, also from Burrawang bloodlines.
The ram had a MWWT of 3.25, WWT of 5.49, PWT of 9.45, PEMD of 0.58, PFAT of -0.61, and MCP of 132.08.
