THERE is money in all types of sheep this spring.
The spring selling season is off to a rampaging start with ram sale averages up and commercial ewe prices setting new records.
The optimism from the buoyant prime lamb markets has filtered through to ram sales as well as the store markets, with Merino ewes hitting $200 at Jerilderie in southern NSW last week and cross-bred ewes topping at $290 at Wycheproof a week earlier.
Last week, 90 per cent of rams offered sold under the hammer, with eight studs selling 797 of 884 rams for an average of $1559 to gross just shy of $1.3 million.
Uardry Dohne stud at Hay in NSW held a stand-out sale, with all 199 rams offered selling for a top of $5000 to average $2018 - almost $200 better than last year's sale. However, the highest price paid for a ram last week, was for a shedding sheep, a White Dorper at the National Dorper sale in Dubbo, NSW which made $18,000.
Of the 182 rams offered, 168 sold for an average of $2250 - one of the best-ever results for the sale, according to Landmark Dubbo agent Kieran Potter.
The sale-topping 13-month-old ram was sold by Terraweena stud at Toowoomba on the Darling Downs in Queensland, while the best Dorper sold for $12,000.
Sale committee member and Dorper breeder Graham Pickles said the strong sale was a reflection of the growing popularity of the breed.
"Rather than prime lamb production being a by-product of wool production, with shedding sheep like the Dorper, you are producing solely prime lambs," Mr Pickles said.
The best of the Merino sales was the Gippsland Merino multi-vendor sale in Bairnsdale, where 111 rams from an offering of 117 sold to a top of $6200 and averaged $1228.
The result was a major turnaround on last year's clearance of only 89 for an average of $888.
Alan Stewart's Stockton stud from Bairnsdale, topped the sale at $6200, but it was Kelvin and Jackie Pendergast's Pendarra stud from Benambra that was the star performer.
The Pendergasts averaged $1566 on an offering of 33 in which the top price was $2600 and from which only three sold for less than $1000.
Elders Gippsland representative Mal Nicholls said the turnaround in the results was due to a combination of reasons.
"Many breeders have been doing it tough financially because of the drought, and they had run down their ram numbers," he said.
"There is also renewed confidence in the Merino plus the improved seasonal conditions were a big help."
