Croydon Corriedale Stud principal Mike Deppeler, left, with Ewin McKenry and the $2400 ram.

PERFORMANCE-RECORDED Corriedale rams sold to $2400 at the annual Croydon on-property sale at Condah in south-west Victoria recently.

Agents Elders sold 32 of the 48 August/September 2019 drop rams offered for an average of $1200 for stud owners Mike Deppeler and Judith Houghton, with five rams making $2000 or more.

Croydon also sold 16 of 24 Suffolk rams offered, to a top price of $1050 and for an average of $859.

The top-priced Corriedale ram, Lot 21, was bought by repeat buyer Ewin McKenry of ‘Berrybank’, Coleraine, who was looking to put more early growth and carcase traits into his flock.

On the New Zealand-based Sheep Improvement Ltd performance and genetic evaluation database, the 14 month-old ram had an eight-month liveweight breeding value of +4.58, a clean fleece weight value of +0.122 and a fibre diameter value of -0.26. The ram weighed 78.5kg on 12 October and carried a 24.6 micron fleece.

Mr McKenry paid an average of $1200 for four rams.

“He was a good sheep and I wanted more thickset rams.

“They are a multi-purpose breed and if I don’t like the shape of them I just walk past them,” he said.

“I just found my ewe flock is getting away from a traditional Corriedale type and that’s why I targeted those rams.”

Paschendale Corriedale breeder Alan Dyke paid $2300 for Lot 6 and $2200 for another ram, the son of an imported NZ Strathblayne. Mr Dyke also paid $800-$1200 for three more rams. Other Corriedale ram buyers came from Woolsthorpe and Gazette.

Mr Deppeler said the Corriedale catalogue included rams sired by six rams in the breed’s top 100 SIL sires and three of the sale rams’ sires were in the top 34 sires in a trans-Tasman SIL and Lamplan list. He said the top-priced ram is a “true dual purpose sheep.”

Several Corriedale rams also sold to prime lamb producers aiming to add value to the fleeces on their crossbred or composite ewes.

Woolsthorpe producer Scott Bell bought four Corriedale rams to go over his composite ewes, whose wool had a fibre diameter of 33-34 micron and has been selling for around 150c/kg.

“I hope to get the wool a bit finer (to 28-30 micron) and cut a bit more wool.”

The top-priced Suffolk ram sold to Casterton producer Rick Foster from ‘Haven Park’. The volume Suffolk ram buyer was the Cherrymount Pastoral Co. at Glenthompson which paid up to $900 for 12 rams.