Strong SA and WA buying in the first of Illoura stud's dispersal sales

Stud breeders made the most of the unique opportunity to secure some high-performance young ewes from Illoura stud at Moorlands in its first stage dispersal sale.

The respect for the foundation White Suffolk stud and its stud principals Allan and Sue Piggott was evident from the long list of SA, Vic and WA studs who turned up or bid online for their bloodlines.

In a marathon three-hour sale, 223 of 256 drop ewe hoggets found homes for a very credible $883 average.

The stud has focused strongly on high growth figures and the $4400 sale topper, lot 5, was just one of these high performance ewes.

The April 2024-drop had a post weaning weight of 23.1 and an exceptional eye muscle depth of 4.53- both of these figures were among the elite of any terminal sires on Lambplan.

The twin born ewe, which also had one of the highest Terminal Carcase Production indexes at 179.6, sold to Shane Baker, Booloola stud, Baringhup, Vic.

It was sired by Woolumbool 221507.

The sale's equal second highest price of $3400 was paid for lot 6 - the other ram in the pick of the pair with the sale topper.

It was bought by fellow White Suffolk foundation stud, Anna Villa, Weetulta - one of six ewes the Ferguson family bought.

Also knocked down at $3400 was lot 24, which sold to Mertex stud, Antwerp, Vic.

A couple of volume buyers put a floor in the auction. Between them they bought nearly half the catalogue.

Mianelup Grazing Co, Gnowangerup, WA came away with 70 ewe hoggets for a $537 average.

Chris and Emily Rudiger, Elton Downs stud, Karoonda, also left their mark with 49 lots to a $3200 high and $855 average.

"When you have a stud that has been in the game for as long as they have and are very well renowned, we grabbed the opportunity with both hands," Mr Rudiger said.

"Being a stud in close proximity to Illoura we were interested in keeping a pure line of Illoura ewes and using it to attract ram buyers."

Nutrien stud stock's Mark Scown was busy keeping up with AuctionsPlus bids with 287 bids on 70 ewes. Nine active bidders from Esperance in WA to Porcupine Ridge in Vic secured 41 lots.

Mr Piggott said it had been a tough decision to disperse the stud but the time was right.

"While I have really enjoyed the work and I still enjoy it, I can see going forward it is going to get harder to do it to the standard that I would expect," he said.

He said they were very happy with the sale and the strong support from fellow breeders.

"Our aim was to get them out to many studs and we achieved that," he said.

"A pleasing aspect of the sale was that while there was strong competition on the elite ewes that made very good money, there were also plenty of good ewes that sold at the base price (of $500 to $600) for people who were after numbers."

Nutrien SA stud stock manager Gordon Wood said it was a buoyant sale with some really good value thrown in.

He said the ewe hoggets presented well, especially considering they were paddock run.

"Walking in here this morning and starting to pen up, you could easily have thought you were penning the rams for one of their ram sales," he said.

"They are the ideal maturity pattern for any stud that wants to breed flock rams and that has been the focus here at Illoura for a long time, not chasing the broad ribbon but breeding very efficient, functional and fertile rams."

Mr Piggott said it would be "business as usual" for the stud in the coming months ahead of the next dispersal stage - a mated ewe sale on March 3 next year.

"In the next month we have 200 ewes to be AI'ed to some of the leading White Suffolk sires and the other 400 allocated to rams with the average TCP above 150.

The final ewe sale will be on September 9 with about 250 2025-drop ewe hoggets on the eve of their final ram sale on September 10.

Elders and Nutrien were joint selling agents with Steve Doecke sharing the auctioneering duties with Mr Wood.