Stud sells its biggest number of rams - and sets record gross of $1.173m

It was a massive day on a number of fronts at Kojonup when the Heggaton family hosted its 11th annual BreedersBEST Genetics on-property ram sale.

Not only did the stud offer and sell its biggest ever number of rams, but it also collected a record-breaking gross of $1.173 million, which now ranks as the largest gross figure recorded at a ram sale in WA.

The result was not surprising in a way, because when the sale got underway, the selling shed was full of producers from not only WA, but across Australia, who were all ready to chase the performance bred terminal and maternal genetics on offer.

They didn't have to look far for a ram as they were spoilt for choice because the Heggaton family lined up an impressive line-up of rams backed by equally impressive Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs).

On the back of the significant improvements in the sheep markets in the past six months, the buyers showed their renewed confidence in the industry and bid up strongly right through the catalogue on the rams they had marked, which helped the Heggatons record their monumental result and top price of $7200 for a Kojak sire.

The Heggatons offered a line-up of 467 Poll Dorset, White Suffolk, Kojak and Prolific rams through Elders and Nutrien Livestock and the line-up showed the work and investment the family has put into its breeding programs, with all four breeds receiving strong support, resulting in a 98 per cent clearance of the rams under the hammer.

By the end of the near five-hour marathon selling effort from Elders auctioneers Nathan King, Jay Macdonald and Preston Clarke, the 91 (nine more than 2024) registered buyers at the sale from the local area and as far away as Bremer Bay and Dandaragan and also the Eastern States, plus another nine active online bidders (eight successful) on AuctionsPlus from across Australia, had cleared 457 of the 467 rams offered under the hammer at an average of $2567, the second best ever recorded by the stud.

On AuctionsPlus there were 172 online bids placed across 50 lots, resulting in 21 rams being sold through the platform.

In comparison to last year, the Heggatons this year saw their average rise $597, while the number of rams offered was up 10 head and the number of rams sold was up four head.

In 2024 the Heggatons offered 457 rams and sold 452 under the hammer at an average of $1970.

Elders stud stock sales specialist, Michael O'Neill, said it was an outstanding result and a credit to the stud's breeding program.

"This type of sale result we see very rarely in WA, so congratulations must go to the Heggaton family," Mr O'Neill said.

"The rams across all breeds presented extremely well and were backed by outstanding figures and the strength of the buyers bidding no doubt was a reflection of the quality on offer.

"With such a quality line-up on offer right through the catalogue, buyers could bid with confidence and it didn't matter which market producers were aiming for, there was a ram for everyone in the line-up.

"It was also great to see long-term clients again supporting the sale, along with new local and interstate buyers which added competition right through the catalogue."

Equally blown away by the result was Nutrien Livestock Breeding manager and prime lamb genetics specialist, Roy Addis.

Mr Addis said it was an extremely strong sale and well up on last year.

"The line-up of rams across all four breeds was an absolute credit to the BreedersBEST Genetics team and buyers certainly showed their appreciation for this in their bidding," Mr Addis said.

"All the breeds met strong buyer support which reflected the consistency and quality of the rams on offer not only in terms of their presentation but also their ASBVs.

"The sale saw not only strong buying support from WA, but right across Australia which shows the reach of the stud and that the rams it is producing are getting results for the clients.

"It was very pleasing to see such strong support in the sale and producers showing confidence in the future of the industry moving forward."

BreedersBEST Genetics co-principal, Liz Heggaton and her family, were blown away and couldn't believe the final result.

"The sale was one for the record books, with the largest line-up ever offered and the shed at full capacity," Ms Heggaton said.

"Support from across Australia was incredible, reflecting the growing confidence in our performance-based breeding philosophy.

"A huge thank you to all buyers and underbidders for your ongoing support.

"Your confidence in our breeding direction and your kind words of praise throughout the day were truly humbling.

"We're proud to see our clients achieving strong commercial results in their own operations, backed by BreedersBEST science-driven genetics."

Ms Heggaton said a major sale highlight for her during the day was seeing their first Kojak ram sold for $7200 and now being able to donate those proceeds to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA).

"The PCFA is a cause very close to my heart as I continue my advocacy to drive greater awareness and support for men and families impacted by prostate cancer," she said.

"A sincere thank you to Elders, Nutrien Ag Solutions and WAMMCO for their support of both the sale and this important cause, and to our dedicated BreedersBEST and Evergreen Grazing team for their tireless work behind the scenes."

Poll Dorset

First to go under the hammer was the line-up of 119 Sherwood Poll Dorsets and they set the tone, as they received strong competition from a long list of return buyers.

By the end of the run, all 119 rams had been sold under the hammer to 24 different buyers for between $1600 and a top of $2800, resulting in an average of $2052, which was up $494 on last year.

Achieving the $2800 top price in the run, was a long, deep ram midway through the line-up in pen 65 when it sold to return buyer Bill O'Keefe, O'Keefe Farming, Gnowangerup.

The ram is by Felix 2201689 and has ASBVs of 0.15 birthweight (BWT), 111.18 weaning weight (WWT), 17.88 post weaning weight (PWWT), 4.78 post weaning eye muscle depth (PEMD), 0.58 post weaning fat (PFAT), -0.3 intramuscular fat (IMF), -1.51 shear force (SF5) and 3.83 lean meat yield (LMY) as well as indexes of 172.24 for terminal carcase production (TCP) and 168.98 for lamb eating quality (LEQ).

With these figures, the ram ranks in the top 1pc for PEMD and the TCP and LEQ indexes, as well as top 5pc for SF5 and top 20pc for PWWT.

But this wasn't the only ram knocked down to Mr O'Keefe, he also secured another 13 rams from the run to finish with 14 to his name at an average of $2193 which made him the equal biggest buyer in the run.

Mr O'Keefe said he was looking for well-structured rams with positive fats and high growth rates and he was able to find plenty to choose from in the line-up.

"We like buying rams from here because they produce good long-bodied lambs and they also have good fats," Mr O'Keefe said.

"They have good growth rates which means the lambs get up and grow fast which is what we want.

"We never have a problem finding the rams we want here as there are plenty to choose from and they always have a very even line-up."

This year the O'Keefe family will join 2200 ewes (70pc Merino) to Poll Dorset rams for a June/July lambing.

Generally they wean their lambs, shear them and run them on stubbles before selling them in late summer/early autumn.

The next best price in the offering was $2600 and it was recorded three times.

The first to pay $2600 was an AuctionsPlus bidder from Victoria who secured an ET-bred ram by Felix 210373, which ranked in the top 5pc for WWT, PWWT, LMY, and the TCP index, top 10pc for the LEQ index and top 20pc for PEMD.

Next to hit the $2600 mark was Glancy & Sons Trust, Bridgetown, which picked up an ET-bred Felix 220168 son that ranks in the top 1pc for WWT, PWWT, top 5pc for LMY and the TCP index, top 10pc for LEQ index and 20pc for PEMD.

Rounding out the buyers to secure a $2600 equal second top price Poll Dorset ram was Chelsea Family Trust, Dandaragan, which bought three rams from the line-up at an average of $2467.

Chelsea Family Trust's $2600 selection was an ET-bred ram by Felix 220168 that ranks in the top 1pc for the TCP and LEQ indexes, as well as top 5pc for WWT, PWWT and PEMD plus top 20pc for SF5.

Other strong supporters of the run buying at the top end and bigger teams were return buyers Dunleath Farms, Darkan, which averaged $2125 over a team of eight that topped at $2400 twice, while the Bungey family, Highdenup Farms, Borden, secured six rams to a high of $2400 and an average of $2183.

The other equal biggest buyer was the Fox family, I & D Fox, Dandaragan, who have been buying from the stud for 10 years.

Representing the family on the day was Mick Fox, who worked his way through the catalogue and finished with 14 rams to a high of $2200 and an average of $1886.

He said it was easy to make his selections from the run as it was a very even team of rams.

"We like buying here as the rams the stud breeds are very consistent and produce very good lambs," Mr Fox said.

"This year we will join between 5500 and 6000 Merino and Prolific cross ewes to Poll Dorset rams."

Just one ram shy of taking home the volume buyer title in the run were Glenn, Susan and David Mead, GR & SL Mead, Chowerup, who were looking for sires with good bodies, a low birthweight and good eye muscle depths.

The Meads, who aren't far away from selling their first load of new season lambs this year, finished with 13 Poll Dorsets clerked to them at an average of $2069 and to a top of $2200 (five times).

The only other buyer to secure a double digital team of Poll Dorsets was Winton Park Grazing Co, Tambellup, which averaged $1990 over a team of 10 that topped at $2100.

Other buyers to impact the clerking sheets were Blewett Family Partnership, Kojonup and JE Kelly & Co, Kojonup, which finished with seven rams each at averages of $1971 and $1857 respectively while Clanmea Farm, Muradup, averaged $2067 over a team of six that topped at $2400.

White Suffolk

After the run of Poll Dorset rams, the sale then moved on to an offering of 92 Sherwood White Suffolks which sold to a top of $3400.

When the final White Suffolk had been sold, the clerking sheets showed 87 of the 92 rams offered had been cleared to 22 buyers at an average of $1825, which was up $369 on last year.

Hitting the $3400 top price in the run was the sixth ram offered in lot 125 when it was knocked down to Peter Robertson, Donnachaidh Farming, Kojonup.

The ram, which is ET-bred by Ashmore 200667, has ASBVs of 0.48 BWT, 14.06 WWT, 23.14 PWWT, 3.10 PEMD, -0.02 PFAT, 5.16 LMY, -0.33 IMF, 2.65 SF5 as well as index values of 164.51 for the TCP index and 164.19 for the LEQ index.

With figures it ranks in the top 1pc for WWT and PWWT, top 5pc LMY as well as the LEQ and TCP indexes and top 20pc for PEMD.

The second top price in the run was $3000 paid by the Hyde family, Kohat stud, Ongerup, for an ET-bred Felix 210815 son.

This ram ranks in the top 1pc for WWT and the LEQ index, top 5pc for PWWT, LMY, IMF and the TCP index plus top 20pc for PEMD.

The next best price in the run was $2800 and this was paid by two buyers.

Return buyer WR & PC Zadow, Kojonup, bought two rams including one at $2800, which is in the top 5pc for WWT, PWWT, PEMD and the TCP index.

The other buyer to go to $2800 for his selections was Matt Bilney, Tegelup Farming, Kojonup, who paid the value twice.

The first ram Mr Bilney purchased at $2800 is in the top 1pc for WWT and PWWT, while the second one is in the top 5pc for WWT, PEDM and the TCP index.

Along with these two rams Mr Bilney secured another 12 White Suffolk sires to finish with 14 at an average of $2021 to make him the volume buyer in the run.

Mr Bilney, who will join 2600 Merino ewes to White Suffolk rams this season for a late June/July lambing, said he was chasing rams with lower birthweights and good weaning weights.

The second biggest buyer in the run, in terms of numbers, was Beltrac Enterprises, Kojonup, which secured 11 rams to a high of $1200 twice and an average of $1036.

After buying a large draft of Poll Dorset rams, the Mead family was also active in the White Suffolk offering, securing nine rams to a top of $2000 and an average of $1567, to make them the overall volume buyers of the sale with 22 rams clerked to them.

This season the Meads will join 3000 Merino ewes to Poll Dorset and White Suffolk rams for a lambing starting on June 1.

Other buyers securing sizeable teams were Creagh Bros, Dandaragan and D Owen Gaze & Co, Gnowangerup, which both secured seven rams at averages of $1971 and $1657 respectively, while Glenorchy Estate, Gnowangerup, averaged $2300 across a team of six.

Kojak

As in past years when the sale moved into the maternal breeds and kicked off with an offering of 160 Kojak rams, it went up a notch which resulted in the selling team being kept on their toes as bids came in thick and fast from all around the shed and also from AuctionsPlus.

The offering of 160 Kojak rams received intense competition from start to finish with most rams seeing at least three buyers operating on them.

The first 115 rams in the Kojak line-up all sold at $2000 or more which helped set up a very good result for the run.

When the final Kojak ram was knocked down, 157 of the 160 rams offered had sold under the hammer to 30 buyers in the shed and another five operating on AuctionsPlus, to the sale's $7200 top price and an average of $3552, which was up $719 on last year.

Attracting the breed's and sale's $7200 top price tag was the first ram offered in the run and there was an extra special reason for buyers to bid up on this ram as all its proceeds were being donated to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia.

In the pen, the ram showed plenty of growth and scale which resulted in many interested parties bidding on the upstanding ram.

But in the end it was buyers of more than 10 years, the Harvey family, Green Gables Pty Ltd, Kojonup, which has a full shedding flock, that prevailed and took the ram home.

The ram has maternal ASBVs of 0.21 BWT, 11.23 WWT, 16.81 PWWT, 2.58 PEMD, -0.36 PFAT, 4.57 LMY, -0.05 IMF, 4.17 SF5, -30.48 post weaning egg count and index values of 149.02 for the maternal carcase production plus (MCP+) and 156.06 of the LEQ index.

With these figures, the ram ranks in the top 1pc for LMY and the LEQ index and MCP+ indexes, as well as top 5pc for WWT and PWWT plus top 10pc PEMD.

Buyer Beau Harvey said he was looking for thicker set animals and this ram certainly ticked that box.

"He is a big, upstanding sire with growth and muscling," Mr Harvey said.

"He had good weaning weight, low worm egg count and a good index.

"He is just a very good all round ram."

Along with buying the top-priced ram, the Harveys also purchased three other rams, including one at $5200 and one at $5000 to finish with four at an average of $5500.

Their $5200 ram has index values of 145.4 for MCP+ and 142.34 for LEQ which are both in the top 5pc while the $5000 ram has indexes of 136.85 for the MCP+ and 136.42 for the LEQ.

The rams will be used in the Harvey family's nucleus breeding flock of 1200 ewes to breed rams for their own use.

The Harvey family started its shedding flock, initially with Dorpers, and has been upgrading since then and working towards a pure Kojak flock which it is now close to.

"We like the Kojak breed because they have good fertility plus they are good meat animals and have a good frame," Mr Harvey said.

"From a shedding breed point of view we believe they are as good as it gets.

"They keep our operation simple."

This year the Harveys will join about 20,000 ewes to Kojak rams for a June/July lambing, as a result of keeping a lot of ewe lambs in recent years as they have been building up their numbers.

The family aims to get its first line of lambs away in October and its first line of wether lambs for this year will go next week.

It wasn't only the Harvey family that were active on the top end of the market, so were first-time buyers to the sale and the breed Greg and Sally Rae, Warrawee Pastoral, Kyalite, New South Wales.

The Raes made their presence felt right through the catalogue, not only were they the volume buyers securing 17 rams at an average of $4282, they also purchased the $6800 second top-priced and $6200 third top-priced Kojak rams as well as one at $5000.

At $6800, they purchased a ram that ranks in the top 1pc for WWT, PWWT and LMY plus top 5pc for the MCP+ and LEQ indexes, while their $6200 ram is in the top 1pc for WWT, LMY and the LEQ index, as well as top 5pc for PWWT and the MCP+ index.

Mr Rae said they were over buying from the sale for the first time as they were wanting to infuse another shedding breed into their enterprise and they had chosen the Kojak breed.

"Currently we are running 8000 UltraWhite and Merino ewes on Yalyal station in the south west Riverina, which is made up of pastoral, irrigation and cropping land and we decided to come over and look at the Kojaks here as we believe they will further enhance our breeding program," Mr Rae said.

"We were attracted to the Kojak package due to their larger frame size and high fertility."

When it came to their ram selections on the day, Mr Rae said they were chasing rams with larger frames, good feet and high figures across the board.

"They needed to have good growth figures as well as we sell a lot of sucker lambs direct to Coles' spring lamb market at 18-20 weeks of age," he said.

In addition to the Kojak rams already mentioned that made $5000 or more, there were another six in the run also in this price range.

The highest priced of these sold at $5600 to RS & CL Duff, Cheeryna stud, Williams, which also purchased another sire at $3000, while the Cavenagh family, Springhills Quindanning Pty Ltd, Williams, paid to a high of $5400 for a team of six which averaged $4033.

Ockley Park, Narrogin and Waitavalo Farms Pty Ltd, Narembeen, both paid a high of $5200 for teams of three which averaged $4867 and $4800 respectively.

In addition to the Rae family, there were three other buyers who added significant competition to the offering, securing double figure teams.

Darkan producers, CM & EJ Buller, was the most active of these, purchasing 13 sires to a high of $3800 (three times) and average of $3177, while Mendarie Pastoral Co, Dandaragan, averaged $2736 across a team of 11 that topped at $3400 and Gillam Grazing Co, Cranbrook, secured 10 for a $3900 average and a top of $4400.

The next biggest buyers in terms of numbers were Scone Pty Ltd, Perth, Tasmania, with eight at an average of $2650 and JE Kelly & Co, Kojonup, went home with seven averaging $3643.

Prolific

The Prolific rams were the last offered and like the rest of the sale the competition was strong throughout.

In this section, 96 rams were offered and 94 sold under the hammer to 19 buyers in the shed and another two operating on AuctionsPlus to a top of $5300 and an average of $2259, which was up $646 on last year.

The $5300 top-priced ram was purchased by return buyer RD Young & Co, Lower King.

The 21.2 micron, twin born ram has ASBVs of 0.44 BWT, 11.65 WWT, 16.67 PWWT, 1.01 PEMD, -0.35 PFAT and a MCP+ index of 164.62.

In addition to this ram, the Youngs purchased another four rams to finish with five at an average of $3400.

Going head to head with the Youngs on a number of rams and losing out on the top-priced Prolific ram was the Newby family, Newby Brothers Trust, Broomehill.

While they may not have secured the top-priced ram, the Newbys purchased three other rams at an average of $3867, including the run's $4800 second top-priced and $4600 third top-priced rams.

The second top-priced ram measured 21.4 microns in the wool and had ASBVs of 0.37 BWT, 7.46 WWT, 10.96 PWWT, 0.87 PEMD, -0.30 PFAT and a MCP+ index of 159.98, while the third top-priced ram was finer at 19.5 micron and had ASBVs of 0.42 BWT, 8.82 WWT, 13.08 PWWT, 0.37 PEMD, -1.25 PFAT and a MCP+ index of 159.94.

The volume buyer in the run was Warren Thomas, RW & JM Thomas, Mt Barker, who was buying the Prolifics for the first time.

Not only did Mr Thomas secure numbers, he also wasn't afraid to bid up and by the end of the run he had purchased 11 rams to a high of $3400 and an average of $2800.

Mr Thomas said when making his selections, he was looking for good wool types and long bodies.

"We will be aiming to join these rams to 500-550 Merino ewes to start a first-cross ewe flock for our prime lamb enterprise," Mr Thomas said.

"I decided to go with the Prolific breed to breed first-cross ewes, because of their high growth rates."

There were two other buyers who had double figure teams clerked to them and they were Dunleath Farms, Darkan and Somersby Pastoral, Boorowa, NSW, which both secured teams of 10.

Dunleath Farms paid a high of $2700 and averaged $1870 across its team, while Somersby Pastoral averaged $1520 across its team that topped at $1900.

Other influential buyers in terms of prices and numbers were Magenta Estate, Kojonup, which collected seven to a high of $3000 twice and average of $2486, while E & J Eastman, Deniliquin, NSW, purchased five to a high of $3600 and an average of $1960 and B & M Stokes, South Tammin, averaged $1413 across a team of eight that topped at $1800.