“Overall, we are very pleased with the sale.
“We didn’t quite achieve the averages of last year but considering where we are at and the extra 50 rams we put before the gallery it was a very solid sale.”
The top price of the day was $18,000 for a purebred Beltex bought by Sterl Roadley, who also paid the top price, $22,000, at the 2019 sale.
“It’s good to see these breeders having good success and coming back to buy again.
“There’s a lot of the sheep out in the industry now. Farmers are realising their value and gaining confidence in the breed.
“People who brought at our first two sales were back again to buy this year.
“There’s some really exciting progeny on the ground and again this year they went right across the country from Northland to Wyndham in the south.”
This year the prices were more consistent, which brought the averages down but was still a good result, Gallagher said.
“Last year there were more higher prices but this year all round has been different for farmers and really we can’t complain with how they sold.”
All the purebreds sold and despite several passings at the auction, very few rams were unsold at the end of the day.
“It was quite bizarre. We had reserves, which we believe were realistic, but they didn’t bid up and we had several passings.
“But after the auction there was a frenzy of activity, bedlam to be honest, and while we didn’t drop our reserves sales were negotiated and pretty much all the rams were sold.
“I’ve never seen anything like it really. As far as actual sale proceedings go it was quite an experience but at the end of the day it worked.”
The purebreds averaged $5270.
The top price of the sale for a 50:50 Beltex-Suffolk cross was $8500 paid by a Canterbury syndicate with the average sale price $1874 while the 75:25 Beltex-Suffolks averaged $1775.
There was plenty of spirit and confidence with good numbers of commercial farmers seeing the benefit of the Beltex, which is good for the meat industry, Gallagher said.
AI and embryo programmes are under way for the new season at Rangiatea.
“We are into our fourth year and this year we have secured exclusive rights to the highest eye muscle scanning United Kingdom Beltex ram so that’s exciting for the programme,” Gallagher said.
