A GAMBLE to hold a summer ram sale paid off for the Gemini White Suffolk stud at Werneth last week.
The sale, designed to cater for prime lamb producers targeting a spring-lamb drop, offered 40 rams and ram lambs, as well as stud ewes.
Vendors Craig and Rosalie Mitchell sold White Suffolk rams to a top of $1000 twice, with the 80 ewes and rams averaging $560.
The sale's top price was paid for a 2 1/2-year-old ram - which had been used in the stud - to Dennis Williams of Shepparton.
Equalling this was the $1000 paid by John Earl of Moriac, who bought a spring 2010-drop ram.
Of the 33 young ram lambs, seven to eight months, 21 sold to a top of $700 and for an average of $579.
Some of the volume buyers included J Rich and partners, Walkerville, with six rams; JL Davies, Narwee, five rams to $700; Morrmung Farming, five rams to $650; and Andrew Stanczak, Bannockburn, four rams to $700.
Stud ewes sold to as far away as Wellington, in NSW, and Weetulta, in South Australia, while Victorian buyers also took their share of the 55-head offering.
The seven rams averaged $729, the 21 ram lambs averaged $579, the 44 mated ewes averaged $534, and eight ewe lambs averaged $506.
The Mitchells said they were pleased with the first summer sale and would continue to run it.
