Supreme exhibit makes top money at 38th Bocoble Merino and Poll Dorset sale
A mix of new faces and repeat customers were out in force at the Bocoble Merino and Poll Dorset stud's 38th annual on-property ram sale at Balgowan, Eumungerie, on Saturday, October 10.
This year's sale had 48 Merino rams offered, with 33 selling to a top price of $7000, and an average of $1533.
In the Poll Dorset ram offering, 16 of 20 sold to a top of $1200, and averaged $1200.
Buyer of the top priced ram, Lot 1A Bocoble 242691, was Stephen Armour, CMA Pastoral of Gunning, who said the ram first caught his eye when Bocoble was a guest stud at the South West Slopes Stud Merino Breeders Field Day at Harden in September.
Mr Armour, who operates Winrock Merino and Poll Merino stud, said he intended using the "good, large framed superfine ram" for breeding rams for his own stud.
A return buyer, he had purchased horned rams from Bocoble in the past, however was concentrating on polls as "everyone seems to be going that way".
The 137 kilogram ram was judged supreme Merino exhibit at this year's NSW State Sheep Show, and has had a good show career, according to Hayden Cox.
"We also used him in the stud as a lamb, as we thought a fair bit of him," Mr Cox said.
Sired by Belbourie Poll 220985, he carried a 16-micron fleece, with a 2.4 micron standard deviation, 14.9 per cent coefficient of variation, 99.8pc comfort factor, and curvature of 82.6 degrees per millimetre.
Mr Cox said it was Bocoble's first year using Australian sheep breeding values (ASBVs), with their top priced ram recording a yearling fibre diameter of -3.12, and yearling curvature +6.80, putting him in the top 5 per cent of the breed for both.
Volume buyers were Inwood Family Trust, Forbes, who took home 10 Merino rams for an average of $1460, with Athlone Pty Ltd, Crudine, outlaying an average of $1233 for the six Merino rams they selected.
Mudgee buyers, Glendos Pastoral Company, purchased four Merino rams to average $1250, while Willow Vale, Gulgong, paid to a top of $1600, twice, for their draft of four Merino rams.
Brad Wilson, Nutrien Stud Stock, Dubbo, said most of the rams went to buyers within a radius of 200 kilometres from Dubbo.
"There were a couple of new faces, but they were mainly repeat buyers, and a few that didn't purchase last year but did this year," Mr Wilson said.
Agents were AWN and Nutrien, Dubbo, with John Croake, AWN, as auctioneer.
