Inaugural Rissmerino ram sale tops at $2300 at Longreach

Including the rams sold after the auction for the base price of $900 each, the sale averaged $1240.51, with five main buyers in operation.

The Yelarbon-based stud is a daughter stud of Well Gully, which dispersed in 2020, and a number of the buyers were previous Well Gully clients, including Alan Forrest, Gordonvale, Ilfracombe, who paid the top price of $2300.

The poll ram weighed 78kg and had 17.9 micron wool at testing, along with a standard deviation of 2.7 and a comfort factor of 99.9.

Rissmerino co-principal Alan Rissman said his figures didn't sell him as much as his exceptionally soft wool and crimp definition.

Gordonvale manager Mick Rigby said it was the ram's quality of wool, plus his size, that impressed him.

"We have a few Well Gully rams, plus Rissmerino rams already," he said. "We like the type of sheep they breed."

Mr Rigby said the offspring were producing a staple length of 80-90mm every eight months, meaning they were able to get a wool clip that often.

Another feature of the stud is its no mulse policy, which Mr Rigby said was also working for them at Ilfracombe. He bought five rams at the sale.

The sale's volume buyers were Ian and Gwenda Windsor, WEC Industries, Blackall and Barcaldine, who purchased 19 of the two-year-old rams in all.

The sale was interfaced with FarmGate Auctions and it was online buyers Keith and Jenny Gordon, El Kantara, Longreach who were the next biggest buyers, competing successfully with those in the wool pavilion at the Longreach Showgrounds for 14 rams.

They were one of two bidders on the online platform and the sole online buyer.

Winton woolgrowers Peter McCalman and the Crombie family, Drumlion, each bought 13 rams, while the Wearing family, Elabe, Hughenden filled the crate of their Landcruiser with 12 rams for the three hour journey home.

The short distance to Longreach to inspect and buy rams was one of the attractive features for John Wearing, saying it beat the 20-hour round trip to Yelarbon to buy rams.

"We have been on Well Gully and Karbullah genetics, but location is the good thing here," Mr Wearing said.

"Well Gully had big sheep, and we were going for the open face rams today.

"We probably picked more for carcase than wool - we know how dry it can get, when that's important."

It's not something that's a problem at the moment - Mr Wearing described their season south of Hughenden as magnificent.

He said he hated mulsing and didn't do it, which his father told him he'd regret in a big season.

"We've been watching out for fly but we've only seen two blown sheep and only one has died."

It was another reason for their interest in the Rissmerino genetics.

Doug and Lauren Tindall, Gaza, Longreach, paid the second top price, $2200 for a poll ram, a twin out of a maiden ewe, weighing 86kg and a fibre diameter of 16 microns.

Mr Tindall said they had been using Well Gully genetics for a while and had purchased a couple of Rissmerino rams last year.

"We like the way they're putting fibre on a really good frame," he said before quickly loading the three rams they'd purchased, eyeing off the overcast conditions on their road home.

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Alan Rissman said they were new to ram selling and knew the hardest thing was to get people to look at rams, thanking everyone present for attending.

"We really hope a sale at this time of year is helpful to you," he said.

Attendees were greeted with five newly shorn lamb fleeces, which Mr Rissman said were some of the whitest and brightest they'd bred, despite recording 450mm between October and December last year.

"We grow tall dry grass so for those three months, having to walk through wet grass, the sheep pretty much didn't dry out," he said.

"It was perfect condition for flies.

"We didn't jet our ewes or use any other chemical treatments for flies.

"Even so, less than 5pc were blown, around the crutch, and only half a dozen on the body - and all those sheep have been culled."

Five of the 79 rams offered for sale were horned rams.