THIS year’s Sheepvention will be missing one of its original components, the Ram Sales.

Since Sheepvention’s inception 45 years ago, the sale by auction of rams has been one of the expo’s main features, with studs from New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania as well as Victoria sending rams to be sold at open-cry auction as part of the two-day event in the first week of August.

At its height, the sale used to attract an offering of some 400 rams.

However, numbers have been dwindling and the Sheepvention Committee has decided that, for this year at least, the event is not viable.

Sheepvention president and Digby & Tarrenlea prime lamb producer, David Botterill said, “We are disappointed that a longstanding aspect of Sheepvention has succumbed to the changing nature of ram sales, with the increase of on-property sales and the post-covid rise of online platforms.”

He went on to tell The Spectator, “It’s not just one thing, there are many issues involved and the decision was not taken lightly.  We need at least 50 rams for a sale to be viable and we were nowhere near that number.”

Expanding on the difficulty of the decision, he pointed out that several past vendors would have liked the sale to continue.

Mr Botterill said that the number of Merinos in the Hamilton district had been in steady decline for at least 15 years and this factor has had a negative impact on the Sheepvention ram sale.

He also rejected suggestions that the Sheepvention Committee was abandoning its farmer base saying, “We are highly committed to the agricultural community in the Hamilton region.”

David Botterill added that the Committee was looking at “…something else for the space of ram selling but we cannot say yet.”

The Sheepvention Committee has also said in an official statement; “Sheepvention Rural Expo will continue to host a number of highly anticipated competitions, including the Virbac Hamilton & Western District Sheep Show, Coprice Victorian Farm Dog Championships, Proway Wool Handling Competition, Inventions Competition, interactive demonstrations, children’s entertainment and over 500 trade exhibits.

In gauging farmer sentiments on the matter, two past vendors were contacted by The Spectator.

While neither wished to be identified, they gave somewhat differing opinions.

The first vendor said that he was contemplating his selling options generally and considering alternative arrangements.

He said he thought that multi-vendor sales (such as Sheepvention’s) were no longer able to compete with on-property online sales.

Asked if he thought that the availability of statistical sire data comprised in Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs), had contributed to the decline of multi-vendor sales he said: “No, I don’t think that they have been a factor.”

He added that ASBVs were available at multi-vendor sales anyway and had been around for some years.

Another prior vendor expressed genuine regret at the cessation of ram sales at Sheepvention, telling The Spectator that he had observed a gradual decline in the years before COVID and acknowledging that this had been a turning point.

On the question of ASBVs, he did not say whether he thought that they had been an influence on the decline of the ram sale.

All in all, it seemed that the Sheepvention ram sale being superseded by on-farm online selling was another example of the internet replacing direct human contact.

Just as working from home replaced the office so online livestock sales are replacing the agricultural shows’ auctions.

There may be efficiency gains but it is sad and, in terms of human interaction, we have lost one more thing to the computer.

Sheepvention will be held on Sunday, August 4 and Monday, August 5 at the Hamilton Showgrounds.