Stellenbosch University (SU) hosted its 49th production auction on 17 July at the Mariendahl experimental farm in Elsenburg outside the town and sold all 49 Dohne Merino and 17 SA Meat Merino rams.
By Jan-Hendrik de Villiers
The Dohne Merino rams and the SA Meat Merino rams fetched average prices of R14 795,92 and R10 823,53 respectively.
The highest-priced ram was a Dohne Merino ram sold for R36 000 to GAF Boerdery of Caledon.
According to Pieter Kemp, manager of GAF Boerdery, this was the ram they were looking for to breed with other ewes on their farm.
“We are after the fine micron of this ram’s wool for the conditions on our farm and what we want to breed from him. He has good wool and body conformation – everything we want to achieve on the farm,” said Kemp.
He says they want to breed their own rams from this ram.
“We will put the ram with 40 ewes, and when his offspring are born, we will assess them. We take their wool microns, we weigh them regularly, and then we see how he breeds.”
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If the ram breeds well, they will use the ram permanently in their flock.
John Morris, seller and Mariendahl farm manager, said they were satisfied with the results despite the difficult circumstances at the moment.
“We realise the farming environment is very tough at the moment. Input costs go up and down, and our product prices do not follow that trend. Under those circumstances, I think we can be thrilled that we did get the support today and secured 100% sales.”
Morris said the auction elicited good comments regarding the quality of the rams sold.
“This is after all what is important to us. We are not here to breed sheep for ourselves,” Morris said. “We have a customer base that we want to satisfy, and people are very happy with the quality we had here today,” he added.
Tjaart Steyn, the auctioneer, explained that the auction offered a “very good, uniform range of rams”.
This includes wool quality and the length of staple of the rams. The body conformation of the rams, in terms of width and depth, was also of good quality.
“I think one could’ve bought any ram while blindfolded and not make a mistake,” Steyn said. “Of course, there were also stud buyers. There were also enough rams for them to choose from to take their stud a little further.”
BKB Humansdorp hosted the auction.
