A syndicate of seven sheep studs from five states has paid an on-property record price for a White Suffolk ram.
Detpa Grove, Jeparit, sold its top-priced ram to the syndicate of Valma White Suffolks, Whitemore, Tas, Days Whiteface stud, Bordertown, SA, Rangeview, Pipers River, Tas, Anden White Suffolks, Woomelang, Mullinger Park White Suffolks, Kybybolite, SA, Cheetara stud, South Kumminin, WA, and Kinella, Canowindra, NSW.
Detpa Grove stud co-principal David Pipkorn said the top price of $60,000 for Lot 70, DG240715, was an on-property record.
"His figures are set to lift any flock, wherever he is used," Mr Pipkorn said.
"It's rare to get a high-performance ram as correct and offering the breed type and standards this bloke does.
"He really ticks a lot more boxes than rams did in the past."
Mr Pipkorn said as the ram developed, he proved himself with his numbers.
The stud also sold its genetics to studs in five states at last year's annual sale.
This year's sale included a total clearance of 30 elite White Suffolk rams, which averaged $9700.
The stud sold 111 of 150 flock rams to a top of $2800 and an average of $1524.
Detpa Grove also sold 56 of 67 ewes offered to a top price of $3400, averaging $1164.
Overall, the sale of 197 head, of 246 offered, averaged $2667.
Anden White Suffolk stud co-principal Andrew Donnan, Woomelang, said the syndicate had similar breeding objectives.
"For a start, we knew the ram was going to make a lot of money because he had very high performance figures, and his structure is really faultless," Mr Donnan said.
"He is not a tall, rangy ram; he is quite a thick-set, very well put-together ram."
Mr Donnan described the sale topper as a strucually-correct ram.
"We were quite happy to share the purchase around the seven progressive studs who are doing Lambplan and have pretty good accuracy on performance," he said.
"For a bonus, he has good eating quality figures, which are not really paid for yet, but to get them as well as a good animal is a bit of a bonus."
The second stud ram to be offered, Lot 69, DG240715ET, fetched $24,000 and was described as the best performance ram offered by the stud to date.
It was bought by Golden Hill stud, Kukerin, WA.
The ram was described as having exceptional structure, balance, hindquarters and type on a square, correct and moderate frame.
"He carries an exceptional dataset culminating in a 180 terminal carcase production index," Mr Pipkorn said.
"He is a July-drop ram from our ewe lamb embryo flush.
"He is sitting in the elite echelons of the research Australian Sheep Breeding Values, which are soon to be released."
The July 2024-drop ram was sired by AS.221308 and out of 230066ETDS.
He had a birth weight of 0.25 kilograms, a weaning weight of 12.34kg and a post-weaning weight of 19.9kg.
His intramuscular fat measurement was 0.05, he had a shear force 5 of -2.22 and a post-weaning eye muscle depth of 5.32 millimetres.
Elders stud stock manager Ross Milne, Hamilton, said it was a very good sale.
"Detpa Grove has been doing it for a long time, and there was a very good draft of particularly top-end rams," Mr Milne said.
"They are certainly well respected within the White Suffolk industry."