By Johan Norval
The national Dohne Merino auction, held on 1 February at Be Human, north of Bloemfontein, was characterised by excitement and good attendance – and a near-record price.
A stud farmer and a commercial breeder from the Southern Free State teamed up to pay the highest price of R200 000 for the ram CR 220270 from Clark and Hayden Rattray of CCM Farms, Swartberg, KwaZulu-Natal.
The Rattrays were a regional finalist in the champion breeder competition in 2024, and the national winner in 2016.
The buyers are Francois Wilken of the farm Bethel, Vanstadensrus, and Phillip Heyns, a commercial breeder from Rouxville.
The ram was taken to the Ramsem breeding station in Bloemfontein after the auction. His straws of semen will later be made available to breeders.
The most expensive Dohne Merino ram was Nickelball from Frans and Andries Marx of the FEM stud, which was sold to a consortium in 2018 for R315 000.
The Hencil ram VM 230163 of Henk and Cecil van der Merwe elicited shouts of surprise at the national auction when he jumped freely over the eight spars of the rostrum.
He was caught and auctioned for R15 000.
JP Marais, auctioneer of BKB, described the auction as a success, especially since a national auction was not held in 2024. “There were many buyers here who were interested in the quality rams. Many stud farms have bought rams from each other, which can lead to good gene pairings in the breed.”
BKB, which hosted the auction, can boast a 100% sale rate and an average price of R36 428 for all the rams.
