TOM Brinkworth, the man who closed the book on the Uardry stud, labelled it as the "sale of the century".

From the perspective of being unique, the commercial livestock man is probably right.

Not many livestock sales spark front-page news for the city media, such as the Uardry dispersals did in The Australian last week, which claimed Brinkworth's move had created "class warfare" in the Riverina by fuelling the divide between traditional stud breeders and the practical commercial farmer.

And the scene last week of stud rams haltered in front of a big marquee in the Hay saleyards is unlikely to be repeated.

From a price perspective, however, the sale doesn't deserve the "sale of the century" tag.

An average price of $184 for 10,000 Merino sheep from a stud flock steeped in the history and performance of Uardry is hardly a result for the record books.

There have been commercial sheep sales held in the past 12 to 24 months that have achieved similar prices, and while sheepmeat markets have devalued since then, many people assumed the genetic merit of the Uardry flock would have carried it beyond today's depressed returns.

Although a few buyers did argue that the sale was better than it appeared on the surface, due to the way the sheep were penned and sold in bigger drafts compared to most traditional stud sales where the top animals are polished up and sold individually.

The smallest pen lot of ewes at last week's Uardry Merino, Sims Uardry Merino and Poll Merino dispersal was 25, which sold for a top of $400.

As one stud breeder explained, he had really only wanted about five of the ewes in the pen, and when that was taken into account, the $400 a head cost was actually far greater.

"This sale looks flatter than it actually is because of the numbers involved, and if it had been possible to class out the tops of each pen then much higher individual prices for these ewes would have been obtained," he said.

The way the flocks were dispersed is one of the most intriguing aspects to this whole Uardry saga.

To have built up an empire like they have, there is no doubt the Brinkworths are canny operators.

They now own an estimated one million hectares of country in South Australia and NSW, running 350,000 sheep and tens of thousands of cattle.

Angas Brinkworth said as much when asked at the sale what was the secret to the family's success.

He said while other farmers probably made just as much profit margin on livestock, they didn't take full advantage of it.

"There are people out there who would make just as much money as we do, but they don't capitalise on it," he said.

"You have to take advantage of opportunities."

Yet, I don't think the way the Brinkworths opted to disperse the studs really maximised their value.

Allowing just eight weeks to prepare 20,000 stud sheep for sale put some limits on the presentation, and selling ram lambs in pen lots for as little as $95 appears odd when they could have been kept and classed and probably sold for much greater money next year.

An agent close to the sale said options were debated, but the Brinkworths wanted a full dispersal by a set date so they could concentrate on their core business of commercial production.

There was talk during last week's Merino auction that five B-double loads of commercial sheep from other Brinkworth properties had already been unloaded at Uardry for finishing just hours after the stud flocks had been trucked out.

While there had been speculation swirling about ill-feeling towards the Brinkworths over their purchase of Uardry and their decision to quit the studs, it was not evident at the Hay saleyards last week.

Tom Brinkworth said "no one, not one person" had approached him or his family about their handling of the stud flocks.

"This talk about class warfare, it's all bull---t, what are they on about?"

He said he did respect and value the stud industry, because it created animals that delivered better performance for commercial growers such as the Brinkworths.

"People have got the wrong impression," he said.

"When Uardry started, the sheep cut a couple of pounds of wool.

"Now when they are well fed, they cut 22 pounds, and that comes from competition between studs to get better and better."

There was, however, speculation at the sale about the Brinkworths and their farming philosophy, and what it would mean for the showpiece Uardry property.

One of the more repeatable statements was that the Brinkworths heavily stocked their country and used as little labour as possible.

The Weekly Times put this notion to Angas Brinkworth, who handled it with aplomb.

"It is a simplification of what we do - you've got to be efficient," he said.

"We have neighbours who have less grass than us, and some with more grass. There is such a huge variation (with how country is managed)."

To witness the end of a stud with the history and tradition of Uardry was sad.

But the loss to the Merino industry as a whole was probably overhyped.

With today's modern breeding practices of artificial insemination and embryo transfer, the best genetics are widely spread and the genetic welfare of the industry doesn't depend on individual properties.