Western buyers in force at 23rd Dorper and White Dorper national sale at Dubbo
Dorper breeders from the state's far west were in force and at the forefront of bidding and buying at the 23rd Dorper and White Dorper National sale at Dubbo Showgrounds on September 5.
White Dorpers led the bidding, with 23 of 36 rams selling at auction, topping at $16,500 to average $4639, while six of 15 White Dorper ewes averaged $1375 at auction, however, the other nine passed-in later sold post auction.
The auction cleared 32 of 37 Dorper rams topping at $9800 to average $3206, while eight of 11 Dorper ewes sold to a top price of $2800 and averaged $1725.
Western breeders secured 47 lots while the remaining 31 were shared between buyers from the Central West and Orana regions and from Queensland, Victoria South Australia and Western Australia.
Having viewed videos of African Warrior 230777 and liking his frame, length and overall style, plus impressive figures, Andrew and Megan Mosely of Etiwanda stud and commercial flock at Nymagee purchased the $16,500 sale topper, offered by Jean and Moozie Van Niekerk of African stud, Moama.
The 16-month-old, 125-kilogram type 4 Warrior is an ET son of Belowrie Bentley and from the three-time supreme national champion, African Lady.
Megan Mosely said Warrior was the type of ram "we like to breed".
"We have seen videos of him, but not actually in the flesh, however his length and overall style impressed," Mrs Mosely said.
"His frame size appeals, he's not short and squat, but well put together conformation wise.
"I think he will fit nicely within the Etiwanda flock and what we are trying to produce.
"And with the breeding behind him, this will bring some new genetics into our stud that we haven't used before."
Mrs Mosely said the new sire would join the flock's artificial-insemination program in February and be joined to selected ewes from the 1400-head stud flock for ram production within the 2000-strong commercial flock.
"He's obviously a proven sire, so we don't have any reservations on using him quite heavily as you might do with unproven rams," she said.
A Kaya White Dorper ram offered by Adrian Veitch, of Narrogin, WA, sold to the second top price of $16,000. It was one of two rams purchased by Cannonbar Pastoral Company, Nyngan.
Kaya White 230695 ET, a type 5 sired by the main Kaya stud sire for the 2025 season, Kaya White WD114, weighed 111 at nearly 13 months.
Cannonbar's other purchase at $7000 was a Nomuula ram, also sired by Kaya White WD114.
Top-priced Dorper ram at $9800 was Dell Dorpers Dash, by a Prieska sire and weighing 112.5kg at just over 12 months.
Dash was purchased by Tom and Bec Palmer for their Girrawheen Dorper flock at Ivanhoe.
Mr Palmer said they had been breeding Dell Dorpers for many years and used rams to breed their own flock ewes.
They paid $25,000 top price at a previous National for Dell Mufasa.
"We plan to join Dash to our stud ewes for flock ram production," Mr Palmer said.
"We continue to buy Dell rams because of their performance within our flock," he said.
Five of the eight Dorper ewes sold were offered by Dell Dorpers with a May-2024 maternal grand-daughter of the National $50,000 record priced Dell Legacy, topping the draft at $2600 when purchased by Donna Cooper for her FTF stud based at Denman.
In the stud business for the past three years, Mrs Cooper said this ewe would play an additional role in breeding up genetics within the flock.
"It's a small boutique stud breeding true-to-type sheep," she said.
Mrs Cooper runs a 'plate-to-plate' prime lamb business together with home-grown vegetables and home-baked bread on the property.
Kallara partners, Tilpa, purchased the $1750 auction top-price Dorper ewe and three others, while later buying five others which had been passed-in, all from Nomuula stud.
The sale-topper was a 28-month-old Nomuula ewe sired by Youlden Valley WD986.
As well, Kallara paid $4800 for African Roman by the Belowrie sire.
Begargo Creek, Trevellier, Lake Cargelligo, secured five rams averaging $2680, including a Nomuula ram for $5500, and five ewes averaging $600.
Geandale Station of Simon and Laura Prince, Cobar, returned to their seventh National and bought nine rams for a $2440 average, topping at $4200 for a 25-month-old Kaya Dorper ram for their 1500-ewe Dorper breeding enterprise.
They recently purchased the whole Culgoa Dorper stud flock allowing Culgoa to concentrate on their UltraWhite breed.
The sale was conducted by AWN and Upper Western Livestock and Land with Greg Millar of AWN the auctioneer assisted by Luke Scales of Upper Western. StockLive provided the interface.
