THE northern Victorian ram-selling season is under way and one of the first cabs off the rank was Kedleston Park Poll Merino.
Its annual on-property sale launched with the privately negotiated sale of the outstanding KP 23.0059 just before the auctioneer took the rostrum to kick off bidding.
But in a reflection of the current market, it became hard work after that.
Calling the action, Elders stud stock manager Ross Milne worked overtime to drive prices up from a very conservative gallery of buyers.
In the end 32 of the 40 rams offered by Rosemary and John Humbert were knocked down, to a high of $4500 and average of $2773.
The top-priced Lot 3 went to long-time client David Rankin from Mitiamo while the volume buyers were PS & M Hurst, who took four at an average of $3125, and JA Tonkin, with five at $1500.
Mr Milne said the stud sheep market was currently “selective” and he felt the Kedleston Park results was about where he expected, and he was confident the passed-in rams would be sold – and two went privately even as he was saying that.
He said with the ram-selling season just starting, it would take a few more weeks to see what buyers are really going to do.
“Clearances will be the key, and while we expect the market to be solid, and slightly better than the past couple of years, I don’t think we will be seeing too many record prices,” he said.
“But people will still want the pick of the catalogues – just look at John’s $20,000 ram today, so the money is there if you have the rams which really deliver across the board.
“After that I am confident sales will still do well, right through their catalogues, but the gallery on the day will set the floor in each sale.”
Mr Humbert said despite the tough going, the sale ended up a little better than he had anticipated.
He said he was pretty happy with the average, and encouraged by the mix of repeat buyers and the arrival of some new ones – including for the $20,000 ram.
“KP 23.0059 was bred by a ram we sold for $32,000 in 2022 and nine of his sons in this year’s catalogue sold for an average of $4500, showing the breeding capability of the father,” Mr Humbert said.
“It isn’t an easy market right now but buyers like Dale West, who paid the $20,000, recognise the potential of introducing genetics as proven as these into their flocks, as he will be hoping to produce some very good rams of his own with him.”
Dale West said he first saw the $20,000 ram at Marnoo during the Victorian State Merino Field Day and immediately made a mental note to follow him up.
He described the ram as having “a beautiful symmetry, with a great spring of rib and lovely soft skin”.
“I always try to buy one outstanding ram privately each year for my commercial wool flock and there is no question this is a beautiful ram,” Mr West said.
“In the 19-micron range he is exactly where I want him to be and I will be using him to breed up some quality rams for my flock.
“In the past I have been a bit of a regular at the Adelaide ram sales, but lately I have also branched out with purchases from studs such as Terrick West.
“This is my first Kedleston Park acquisition and I think we are going to be pretty happy with him because he looks every bit as good as the day I first saw him.”
The May 2023 drop KP 23.0059 presented with some outstanding figures, ranked in the top 20 per cent of the breed for yearling clean fleece weight (YCFW) before transforming that into the top 5 per cent for adult clean fleece weight (ACFW) at 29.63.
With a fleece measurement of 19.8 microns on a body weight of 110kg, this is a big ram with big potential.
The sale of this exciting young sire backs up the stud’s latest success on the national stage.
In the Australian fleece competition at the Australian Sheep and Wool Show in Bendigo, Kedleston Park took out the performance class fleece for a second year – and the Victorian championship as well.
That fleece scored 96.7 from the judges, the star lot from more than 200 other fleeces at the show.
