Oamaru ram earns stud $16,000 at elite sire sale
A top price of $16,000 for a southdown ram was reached at the Canterbury A&P Association elite ram and ewe sale.
The ram, belonging to David Robertson of the Cordyline Southdown Stud, was bought by Dave Gillespie of Midland Stud, Oxford. ‘‘You can go through your whole career and never have a sale like this,’’ Robertson said. ‘‘I doubt I will repeat it again.’’
Robertson established the stud in about 2008 and has retained semen rights for the ram. A fourthgeneration stud breeder, he grew up in West Otago in a family with a long association with sheep breeding. He had his own romney stud when he was young and had always been interested in genetics and production animals.
The ram, Cordyline 15-16, was born a triplet from one of his better ewes. Robertson’s father, David, saw his potential and picked him out just after weaning.
Robertson took the ram lamb to the southdown progeny test site at Stoneburn, where another 14 breeders were represented. That was when he first thought it had potential. The ram won champion southdown at the Southern Canterbury A&P Show at Waimate. Robertson mated the ram with a few two-tooth ewes, following an artificial insemination programme, and its progeny were like lambs he had ‘‘never seen before’’.
The sale attracted a quality line up of 223 rams and 20 ewes. The average sale price was $1721 for the 156 rams sold and $353 for ewes with 19 ewes selling. Total sales of $275,200 were recorded – up from $250,500 last year.
Other top prices included $8500 for Chris Medlicott’s southdown ram and $7000 for Willowhaugh Enterprise’s southdown ram, $4700 and $4000 for Westmere Farming Co’s border-leicester rams, $7200 for AJ and ND Mccall’s texel ram and $6600 for JT Miles’s suffolk ram.