Of the 78 rising two-tooth rams offered, 58 were sold, leaving 20 passed-in.
The average price was $905 with a top price of $1800 achieved by two of the rams, Manawatu-based PGG Wrightson livestock genetics representative Caitlin Rokele said.
“We would have liked to sell a few more but the harder season, it’s been wetter and colder, and deterioration in wool prices might have slowed the market.
“We got some good money at the start but there weren’t as many commercial buyers in towards the end.”
Prices were up on last year by up to $100 or so, to go with the generally high confidence levels in the industry.
There was plenty of talk about high prices being achieved for ewes right now.
A feature of the auction was a premium paid for rams whose breeding included some genetic resilience to facial eczema.
A good number of buyers were from King Country, Taihape, Rotorua and northern Hawke’s Bay where eczema had been a recent issue and were keen to see the test results on the rams.
The rams were from breeders based in similar areas to the buyer bench so there was a good understanding of the issue, Rokele said.
There were also buyers from Taranaki, Wairarapa and Gisborne. The rams on sale were selected from the top 20% of the flocks of each breeder.
Perendales were dual-purpose sheep, with a good bulky fleece so wool had traditionally been a good selling point.
Six Romney rams sold at the annual Mana Stud sale on Tuesday were headed for stud duties.
The Wairarapa stud farm sold 30 rising two-tooth rams for an average of $1976, Wrightson livestock genetic representative Tom Suttor said.
Commercial farms bought 24 rams.
Top price for the rams sold for stud duty was $5000 with another at $4800 and the other four for $3000 each. Three of the stud rams were bound for the South Island.
The sale was stronger than last year with more rams sold, illustrating the positive mood in the sheep sector and high lamb and ewe prices, Suttor said.
Mana Stud was owned by Malcolm and Selina Wyeth.
As well as the key traits of reproduction, survival, growth, meat and wool in the stud’s genetic pool, several of the rams were sired by a ram bred for resilience to facial eczema.
That didn’t guarantee resistance but showed the breeders were doing something to breed resilience to the disease, he said.
