The 2022 Karbullah Poll Merino sale near Goondiwindi got off to a cracking start with the day filled with sunshine and a positive vibe for a good season ahead.
The demand for genetics with data and proven productivity saw the top priced ram make $12,300 on Monday.
An average of $2035 was achieved for a clearance of 96 per cent, with 178 rams sold at the completion of the sale.
The top ram purchased by Bill Mann was an August 2021 drop with a comfort factor of 99.9 per cent.
According to Mark Murphy of Karbullah the ram had the data that the bidders were looking for.
Weighing in at 65kg with a staple length of 75, he was a PP with a yearling eye muscle depth of 2.3, a yearling fat depth of one and a yearling worm egg count of -36.2.
The ram also boasted a yearling clean fleece weight of 15.8 and yearling fibre diameter of -0.1 and yearling staple length of 16.2.
Bulk buyer and long term repeat buyers John and Mirella O'Sullivan, Littleton, Thallon purchased a total of 11 rams to average $3109 including the second top price ram for $6000.
They believe fertility, polled, temperament, lamb survivability, worm resilience and outstanding wool quality are very important to their herd and that is why they keep coming back to the Karbullah genetics, they said.
Worm egg count was very important in their selections.
They shear every six months due to the exceptional length as they don't use chemicals or backline.
Mrs O'Sullivan said the progeny had exceptional mothering ability and multiple births.
Mr O'Sullivan said data was important and it made it easier choosing rams with the eye muscle and fat coverage.
"It's the data you can track and rely on," he said.
Mark and Vicki and the team at Karbullah have made huge gains in their wool quality of the past few years by introducing a lot of SRS genetics to improve the density, lustre and softness of their fleeces.
Around 20 rams in the sale tested at 100 per cent for comfort factor with the lowest in the sale testing at 99.3pc.
Worm burden is another factory they have worked strongly on and the average WEC for the sale rams sat in the top 30pc in Australia, with 19pc of the rams sitting in the top 10pc and above.
Listed in the sale were 129 rams that were a twin, three rams that were a triplet and 46 singles.
Jane Lowe
National Sale consultant
I have been with QCL for over 24 years and love working with cattle, sheep and goats.