A TOTAL of 64 rams sold for an average of $3515 and grossed almost $225,000 at the annual Sheepvention ram sales.

An online bid of $11,000 from Forbes, NSW, topped the sale for a Glendonald, Nhill, Merino ram with 19.3 micron wool.

Commenting on the ram, Glendonald principal Robert Harding said the ram was good sized with good, bold, medium wool.

“For the plainness of body, he is still a very woolly ram, and that is the challenge at the moment,” Robert said.

“As people endeavour to breed them plainer, they have lost their wool cut. This fellow has still got wool cutability in a plain body.

“In agriculture today, basically everything we produce is sold by the kilogram, whether it is meat, wool or grain. The bigger the sheep you’ve got with the most wool, is going to be the most profitable.”

Elders auctioneer, Ross Milne said he was very happy with the sale and the clearance.

“The average was very, very solid, probably on-par with last year, without the top price,” he said.

“We had a very good clearance, without the one or two high priced rams of 2022.”

Ross said Hamilton has always been a top end flock ram sale.

“The majority of the offering were good quality, genuine commercial Merino producers which present pretty good value for money,” he said.

“All-in-all, I think vendors, who came from Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania, would be very happy.

“Sheepvention is still a great outlet for a lot of people to get their sheep in front of a different audience.

“This sale, and a lot of the other multi-vendor sales, have been a victim of COVID, when a lot of people concentrated on on-property sales, causing a lot of multi-vendor sales to decrease in the size of their offering.”

Buyer advocate, Rick Power, Landmark, paid the top price of $9000 for a 14 month, 18 micron Poll Merino ram from Yarrawonga Pastoral, Harden, NSW.

Rick said the buyer was looking for a good, solid, lower micron Poll ram with good structure, good feet and an open, clean face.

“This is a good, rich wool sheep and he is by the RP72 sire which is very safe and predictable, he said.

Five Corriedale rams from the Blackwood family in Evandale Tasmanian sold to a top of $3500, and an average of $3100.