THE rapid rise of Kerin Poll Merino stud has been a case study the Merino industry has followed with great interest and the stud smashed more national records on Monday.
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A record number of 359 rams all cleared to average a stud record of $2457 and gross a massive $882,000 – an Australian record gross for an on-property Merino auction.
The huge crowd on hand had Nigel and Kate Kerin, ‘Karuga Park’, Yeoval, attribute much of the growing interest in Kerin Poll to “word of mouth”, with clients built up in the past eight years sharing their successes with friends and neighbours.
“They are getting big results from investing in rams with big ASBVs,” he said. “For the first time ever, one client got a second cross lamb rate ‘over the hooks’ this year because of carcase shape and quality.
“Each year, we get another client that’s cracked 140 per cent of lambing – this year it’s Phil Hunter of Yeoval – and it’s been fantastic to watch each client’s progression over the years and the buzz they get from pulling off these great results.”
Mr Kerin said it was a case of great management combining with great genetics to produce these success stories.
“The feedback from the 16 new clients was consistency throughout the sale and that’s no accident - we attribute this to carrying out the large scale artificial insemination (AI) and embryo transfer (ET) programs we’ve been doing,” he said.
While the average was $2457, 86 rams sold for $1250 or less, ensuring available rams to suit all budgets.
Last year records were set when 289 rams averaged $2246 but the bar moved even higher on Monday when an extra 70 rams were sold and an extra $211 added to the average.
Returning for a third consecutive year, Walgett’s Adrian Newton, “Combadery”, again paid the top price, bidding to $26,000 for the second lot of the sale - a 139 kilogram, 17.6 micron son of leading sire, Moorundie Park 306 “The Kelvinator”.
He said the general size of the sale-topper was attractive - he was 120kg at exactly 12 months old, paddock run.
“It was his overall balance between fleece weight and early growth weight and early growth weight is something we are wanting to fix in our sheep,” he said.
“Like others I am also focusing on temperament of sheep and I think that’s what is going to separate the Poll Merino ultimately from Dohnes.
“Temperament translates into efficiency in cattle and I’m sure that’s the same in sheep as well.”
