From wild dogs to record hauls: the families behind the Winrae Dorper sale

Buyers from Stewarts Brook in the Upper Hunter and Quilpie in south-west Queensland shared the honours with the two top-priced rams at the Winrae Dorpers ram sale at Warialda on February 20.

Winrae sold 62 rams at auction of 80 offered, to a top price of $5000 twice, averaging $2411 overall.

In the Dorper section, 57 rams averaged $2447, while five White Dorpers sold to $2000, averaging $2000.

The result was back on the previous year's sale, but a rapid and worrying drying off of most of the areas buying the rams was blamed for the trend.

Opening remarks by the auctioneer, John Settree, said a strong sheep and lamb market was holding ground.

"Now all we have to do is add water and it will carry us through the year," he said.

David and Marianne Carter, Stewarts Brook, east of Scone in the Upper Hunter, used their judgement, acquired from running a butcher's shop at Morpeth to bid up for the equal top-priced ram.

Mr Carter said they ran between 160 and 200 ewes, aiming to turn off trade lambs in the 25 to 30 kilograms carcase weight.

"The Dorpers do a great job in providing our needs for the butcher's shop," he said.

Mr Carter said the area where they ran their ewes was plagued by wild dog attacks and they were training up some young Maremma pups to run with their flock.

Mrs Carter said they had been using Amarula rams in recent years and decided to try a sire from Winrae's genetic pool.

"We're after an early maturing lamb, that has the right fat cover and with the trade carcase weight of 25kg to 30kg," she said.

Winrae 24-5434, sired by Winrae 225258, was a November-2024 drop single that weighed 90kg and was classed as a type four ram.

Its ASBV (Australian sheep breeding values) included top five per cent of the breed for birthweight (BWT) at -0.49, with shear force (SF5) and post-weaning fat both in the top 10 per cent.

The other equal top-priced ram, Winrae 25-5520, was bought by Sam Bartlett, Quilpie, Qld, who bought another ram for $4000.

Mr Bartlett's sale topper was a 12-month-old sired by Winrae 225437 and weighing 91kg.

Cameron Campbell, Bough Creek Grazing, Cunnamulla, Qld, made the long trip to Warialda and was one of the volume buyers at the sale, with eight to a top of $3000 twice, averaging $2500.

A repeat buyer, Mr Campbell said his family operation runs about 6000 ewes in enclosed country, which had fairly recent rain.

"It looks like we'll be able to carry through for a couple of extra months," he said.

He said his family were early adopters of Dorper sheep and had been running them for about 25 years.

Mr Campbell said lambs were generally finished on native pastures at Cunnamulla, then trucked about 1000 kilometres to the JBS plant at Cobram, Vic, for processing.

"We're aiming to turn off lambs with a carcase of about 25kg to 30kg, which we can comfortably do on our native pastures," he said.

David Russell, Nutrien Russell, Cobar, NSW, was busy, buying 10 rams for Budda Station, Tilpa, and four rams for Australia Green Properties, Cobar.

He said Budda Station was running about 4000 ewes, joining them so they could produce three drops of lambs in two years.

Mr Russell said the grip of the dry in the state's west was beginning to cause plenty of concern, and the staff at Tilpa were feeding out "a fair bit of hay", mainly to the Angus cattle being run there.

Chasing rams for their stud flocks of 300 Dorper ewes and 300 White Dorper ewes were Wayne and Karen Dingle, Smit Dorpers and Boondarra White Dorpers, Mungallala, Qld.

They bought two rams, a Dorper and White Dorper at $4000 each and another Dorper at $2000.

The Dingles hold their own ram sale and also sell in a multi-vendor sale with Winrae and Amarula Dorpers, Gravesend, in the Queensland centre of St George in July.

Lachlan Lush, Dunnadee, Goolhi, made the switch to Dorper sheep in the 2019 drought and says he had not looked back since.

Mr Lush bought three rams for his flock of 600 ewes, to a top of $2500, averaging $2166.

He said he aimed for three lambings in two years with his flock, and last month sold lambs that averaged $260 a head.

"That's very good for me," he said, "if I can get that I am pretty happy."

The selling agents were Nutrien Ag Solutions and Nutrien Russell, Cobar, with John Settree the auctioneer. StockLive provided the online interface.