Offering draws breeder interest from all over the country secures genetics

The Bowen family's time in the sheep breeding industry finally came to a close last week when it held a dispersal sale for its White Suffolk stud ewe flock on AuctionsPlus.

Stud principal Guy Bowen started in the sheep breeding industry in 1968 with the Shropshire breed and moved to the Suffolk breed in 1969.

He made the move into White Suffolks in 1989 when he purchased some Poll Dorset ewes to commence his White Suffolk breeding program and he sold his first White Suffolk ram in 1991.

In last week's sale, which was co-ordinated by Elders, the family offered 155 White Suffolk ewes ranging from 2019-drop through to 2023-drop and the offering was well received from not only local WA stud and commercial breeders, but also breeders from New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria.

During the two-hour long sale, 129 people logged in and 19 of these were active bidders, who placed 1885 bids on the catalogue which had received 3351 views online.

When the sale finally concluded, 16 of the 19 active bidders had been successful in purchasing and this helped the Bowen family achieve a 100 per cent clearance of the 155 head offering to a top of $3800 and an average of $786.

Mr Bowen said they were really pleased with the final sale result.

"It was great to see a variety of buyers from across Australia had the opportunity to operate and secure genetics in the sale," Mr Bowen said.

"To see the ewes sell not only to WA studs but also enterprises based in the east was very pleasing.

"A highlight for me was the way the old ewes sold, as we have always used them to drive our breeding program forward."

Topping the sale was a 2023-drop, twin born, Farrer 190111 daughter in lot three after it attracted plenty of competition.

With numerous bidders placing bids on the ewe, the price quickly rose and eventually it was knocked down to the Richardson family, Mianelup Grazing, Gnowangerup, at the $3800 top price.

Elliot Richardson said he liked the ewe and was keen to secure it as it had excellent structure and figures and was also a good size.

Not only did the ewe impress on the eye with its balance and structure, it also had the figures to match with many ranking in the top 5-20pc on LambPlan.

The ewe has LambPlan figures of 0.5 for birthweight (BWT), 12.78 weaning weight (WWT), 20.23 post weaning weight (PWWT), -0.17 post weaning fat (PFAT), 3.16 post weaning eye muscle depth (PEMD), 0.17 number of lambs weaned (NLW), -1.08 lambing ease (LE-DIRC) -52.72 post weaning worm egg count (PWEC), 4.35 lean meat yield (LMY), -0.31 intramuscular fat (IMF) and 1.82 shear force (SF5) as well as indexes of 159.57 for terminal carcase production (TCP) and 159.64 for lamb eating quality (LEQ).

With these figures the ewe ranks in the top 5pc for WWT, PWWT and NLW, top 10pc for PWEC, LMY, as well as the TCP and LEQ indexes and top 20pc for PEMD.

But it wasn't only the top-priced ewe Mr Richardson was interested in, he also purchased another 21 ewes from the catalogue for an overall average of $784, making him the sale's biggest buyer.

Included in these 21 other ewes was one of the $2450 equal third top-priced ewes, which was another 2023-drop, twin born, Farrer 190111 daughter.

This ewe ranks in the top 5pc for PWWT, top 10pc for WWT, NLW and PWEC as well as top 20pc for PFAT and the LEQ index.

Mr Richardson said they were chasing well-structured sheep with good figures.

"In terms of the figures we were concentrating on good post weaning weights as well as good fat and muscle," he said.

"These ewes along with 70 ewes we purchased from the Illoura dispersal sale and two rams from the Booloola stud will form the foundations for our recently established Mianelup stud.

"We have been using White Suffolks in our commercial flock for a number of years and like what they do, so we decided because we need quite a few rams for our own operation and like stud breeding we would establish a White Suffolk stud.

"While we have started White Suffolk stud, we will not be forgetting about our Merinos and will still be going hard on them as we see a positive future for both Merinos and meat sheep."

The second top price was $2650 and it was recorded against another 2023-drop, twin born, Farrer 190111 daughter which ranks in the top 5pc for WWT, PWWT and PWEC as well as top 10pc for NLW and the LEQ index.

This ewe was purchased by a New South Wales buyer based at Holbrook, who also purchased another five ewes to finish with six at an average of $1983.

Included were another three secured at $2150, $2100 and $2050 that were all 2023-drop, twin born, Farrer 190111 daughters which had LEQ indexes in the top 10pc.

The other buyer to secure a ewe at the equal $2450 third top price was a Boyup Brook based stud, which also purchased another three ewes, for an overall average of $1631.

At $2450, this buyer purchased a 2023-drop twin born ewe by Mount Ronan 220162.

This ewe is in the top 5pc for WWT, PWWT, PFAT, NLW, PWEC and IMF.

Another buyer to average more than $1000 for their team was one from Culburra, South Australia.

This buyer purchased nine ewes to a top of $1500 three times and an average of $1144.

There were a number of buyers to purchase double figure teams from the catalogue and these included a buyer with a property at Cunderdin who secured 19 ewes at an average of $509, while Nutrien Livestock, Pingelly/Brookton agent Chris Turton, secured 16 ewes at an average of $667 for a client.

There were also another two buyers to purchase 15 ewes and these buyers were from Williams and Nilgen.

The Williams-based buyer paid to a top of $1550 and an average of $993 for their selections, while the Nilgen buyer averaged $475 over their team which topped at $650.