A MOTIVE to provide buyers with impressive data sets for young ram lambs has paid dividends for Tom and Phoebe Bull after they achieved a record gross, just shy of $4 million, for a single-vendor sale.
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The couple of Lambpro, Holbrook in the eastern Riverina offered 903 ram lambs, aged from four to six months, to achieve a hefty average of $3913 in the Primeline Maternal section of the catalogue.
More than 300 Poll Dorset and Tradie rams were sold for an impressive average of $1459.
This year's 2020 catalogue had an additional 300 rams, compared to 2019. And it was evident buyers had an appetite to purchase all that was on offer.
In all the on-property sale, which attracted buyer support from NSW, South Australia and Victoria, achieved a gross of $3.977 million.
Mr Bull, who has been breeding rams for more than 25 years, said the result was a sign of the times. But it was in fact, much more than that.
The sale was a clear indication of the direction the prime lamb was heading with buyers seeking out a promise of top performance and winning genetic traits.
"People are buying young ram lambs off data." He said it was all about providing the data characteristics which would spell success in the commercial industry.
Mr Bull said more people were using figures to select young sires rather than simply going on visual appraisal.
"If you just keep picking the big rams all you do is go back to the single-born rams," he said.
Mr Bull said multiples were an important part of the program. "This is about getting some new genetics out into the industry," he said.
Despite the large catalogue Mr Bull said the demand was extremely strong. And it showed in the average and gross.
"We could have put another 400 rams in our sale and we would have sold them," he said.
In terms of structural assessment Lambpro has been a trailblazer and offered data to back up the functionality of rams.
Lambpro we have been breeding the Primeline Maternals for 20 years and breeding rams overall for 25 years and has always focused on objectivity and profitability to meet the market.
Mr Bull posted on social media soon after the sale and thanked buyers for all of their support.
The post read "Two decades ago when we developed Primeline Maternal we never thought possible it could hit the heights we saw yesterday, breaking not only many Australian sheep records but beef as well."