Springvale North picks up top ram for a new family line from Rices Creek
With 231 rams on offer, Rices Creek Poll Merino's annual Saddleworth sale attracted a strong crowd of more than 100 people.
The wintry Clare Valley day didn't deter bidders from attending what was a strong sale.
A full clearance resulted in an average of $2790, nearly $900 up on last year's result.
Lot 2 was the high point, purchased as a stud sire for $8500 by Alex and Peter Stockman, Springvale North Poll Merinos, Burra.
Weighing 114 kilograms, the ram, which is yet to cut two teeth, had a fleece micron of 20.3, with 2.7 standard deviation, 12.9 coefficient of variation and 99.7 per cent comfort factor.
Peter Stockman said the young ram, sired by a long-bodied, heavy cutting Rices Creek ram, had "plenty of potential in him yet" and time to continue to grow into his stature.
"Standing back, looking at the structure and length, body and barrel, he's a great upstanding ram with a great depth of jaw and is a bit lighter in the head, which is what we're after," Mr Stockman said.
To complement those traits, Mr Stockman said he had good figures, staple length, definition of crimp and fibre alignment.
This ram will soon be in with Springvale North's breeding ewes, giving the stud an opportunity to start a new family line.
With a full clearance and more than 60 registered bidders from SA and interstate, volume buyers included Sparks Farming, Jamestown,who bought 30 rams, averaging $2877; Walmona, Truro, buying 25, averaging $2360; Hyde Pastoral Trust buying 20, averaging $3205 and Carn Nominees, Quorn, buying 19, averaging $1995.
Walmona's Debbie, Paul and Tim Doering, Truro, were present at the sale to bid and take their rams home.
Paul said their family had purchased from Rice Creek for roughly 67 years.
Rices Creek stud principal James Vandeleur was pleased with the lineup they presented and the result.
Mr Vandeleur said he saw Lot 2 as a potential stud sire.
"I had a good look at him yesterday and thought that is pretty special wool on a very good carcass, and he ticks all the boxes," he said.
"Considering these have had it pretty tough these rams - there wasn't a lot of feed around early in the year - they have really moved with the season and later they copped a lot of rain on them and they've stood up really well."
The sale was conducted by Nutrien and Quality Wool, with Gordon Wood and Cam Petricevich on the gavels.
Mr Petricevich said there was good value at the top end of the sale and an "extremely strong result all the way through".
Nutrien's Gordon Wood said the large orders for rams were well covered at this year's sale with only a dozen rams falling below the $2000 mark.
"They've got ASBVs on them now as well, so for those people hunting some data they'll find it here, as well as those big robust rams that grow a heap of wool," Mr Wood said.
