![Kurralea's Kim Prentice, buyers Grant and Bryce Hausler, Janmac, Goroke, Vic, and Kurralea's Ben and Lucy Prentice with the $13,000 top price Poll Dorset ram. Kurralea's Kim Prentice, buyers Grant and Bryce Hausler, Janmac, Goroke, Vic, and Kurralea's Ben and Lucy Prentice with the $13,000 top price Poll Dorset ram.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/9kyzP9Zutm5XFVsqvLWUBX/0c40f083-597a-48fe-ad1e-c207be38f7f7.jpg/r0_284_2094_1740_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
RAM prices this spring selling season are soaring, with studs recording increases of $200 to $400 per head on last year’s averages.
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Market confidence and flirtatious grass fever has ignited a selling season which is hailed “as good as it gets” by stud principals who are welcoming waves of new cropping clients onto the auction floor.
“We’re out of rams,” Kurralea Poll Dorset and White Suffolk principal Ben Prentice said, Ariah Park, NSW.
“Often we have rams into the New Year, with inquiry until February but this year we’ve sold 500 in two days and have nothing left.”
Kurralea’s entire 364 ram offering was sold, as well as a further 136 out of the paddock.
“People are hanging onto their cast-for-age ewes to increase numbers because it is a good season and there will be plenty of feed around,” Mr Prentice said.
“Cropping has been big around us for the past decade and sheep for a fair while disappeared in a lot of places.
“A few prominent croppers are putting more time and effort into the sheep because they see using their grain for feed as the best returns option.”
Mr Prentice said this ram selling season was “as good as gets” for studs.
“The lamb market has become very consistent and the dives aren’t there like they used to be, so when the market drops, it is still worth pretty good money,” he said.
In WA, Primaries wool manager Greg Tilbrook said ram sales were consistently more than $200/head up on last year’s prices.
“Ram sales are solid because people are carrying that extra age group and picking up extra ram numbers,” Mr Tilbrook said.
“Those that have sheep are looking to run more so instead of selling the five to six year-olds they’ll keep them to go again which will see an increase in production next season.”
“People in the central wheat belt, around Merredin north, are spray-topping pastures now to hold that feed value in the pasture and we’re seeing some of those guys increase their sheep stocking capacity.”
While the rain has promised major pasture growth in the coming months, with some region’s receiving three times last year's annual rainfall in just six months, impacted accessibility to on-property sales.
For Pooginook Merinos property manager John Sutherland, Jerilderie, NSW, the impact was a hit to competition at the recent on property ram sale with eight clients unable to attend due to the region’s floods.
“The wet spring is so extreme it is becoming an impact on business (logistics),” Mr Sutherland said.
“It is such an unusual event it is impeded on the average persons’ either ability to attend the sale or his revenue from the farm because of crop damage.
“Several high value, long-term clients who compete on about 35 rams were unable to purchase due to flooding on their farm so there were some stud rams that didn’t happen.”
Despite these challenges, Pooginook sold two lots shy of the 233 ram offering to $15,000 and averaged $2108.
![Rain and grain behind soaring ram prices Rain and grain behind soaring ram prices](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/9kyzP9Zutm5XFVsqvLWUBX/52fdd854-6292-4b7d-a78c-a0125630a168.jpg/r0_0_4101_2543_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
“The basis for a good ram sale season is a hint of rain and a sniff of grain,” Elders SA stud stock marketing manager Tom Penna said.
“The season, and the prices for wool, lamb and mutton are the four ducks that are lining up to support the sales – and the fifth is good money for breeding stock.”
Mr Penna said pastoralists underpinning ram sales in South Australia, purchasing up to 30 per cent of recent ram sales’ offerings.
“Graziers that have their numbers up are some of the most profitable enterprises in the rural industry at the minute,” he said.
“Competition for rams is coming from within the existing buyers that have all had a buoyant 12 months of returns, as well as croppers increasing their share.
“With the Merinos, there is a small percent of people that are rebuilding their numbers so we’re seeing a swing from British breed and prime lambs back to merinos.”