By Brett Tindal

Top priced ram at the 2025 Woodpark Poll sale fetched $9,000 - Nic Bliss, Mathoura Station, Mathoura, Nick Gray, Elders, Tim Woodham, Nutrien and Woodpark's Steve Huggins.

A staunch return client base paved the way for a complete clearance of 144 rams at the Woodpark Poll Merino ram sale on Monday September 22, in the wake of tough seasonal conditions and a soft wool market.

Buyers chasing carcase and wool in a complete dual-purpose package drove the sale to tops of $9000, averaging $2631.

The top ram sold to Nic Bliss, Mathoura Station, Mathoura, for $9000 and a second at $3000. He was a ram with a balance of data across carcase and wool attributes and described by Mr Bliss as a ram with plenty of depth and cover, and nice white wool.

The second top ram went to Keith Davies, Caragabal, who paid $6800 for the 18.5 micron ram, with a good balance of figures across the page, especially in the top 10 per cent for LMY and YFD, with top 20pc for YCFW, WP and SM.

Mr Elmes said his orders were to “go and spend what you need to get the rams we need” and was given a very generous budget to do so, averaging $4067 for three.

Carrathool’s Armstrong family, “Corynnia”, led the charge via Michael Elmes, securing 30 rams, to average $1607. Bruce Armstrong runs 4200 ewes and uses the Merinos to help balance the books with his cropping enterprise.

”We buy 30 rams a year off the Huggins family and we get five years out of them easily, whereas other rams only average about three years, which (longevity) helps our efficiency on farm,” he said.

Paula Dean, Longreach, Queensland, secured 11 rams in total and averaged $3636 for her draft.

“We get great survivability out of these rams, and we found that through the floods this year, where we had 590ml of rain in three days and only lost 40 ewes from 3500,” she said.

“The Woodpark Poll rams give us the best lambing percentages and offer the most consistent line of lambs when they hit the ground.”  

Michael Elmes, Smartstock, Narranderra, with Isobel, Liv, Digby and Steve Higgins, and the second priced ram.

Peter Unger, Alectown, loaded eight rams at a $2400 average and paid to $4800.

Mr Unger said: “they are like peas in a pod, and you can buy any ram out of this sale, and you get the same results”.

Craig Wilson, Wagga Wagga, purchased 11 rams for McCorkell Pastoral, Hamilton, Victoria, paying to $6400 and averaging $3073.

Mr Wilson said he put together 11 rams as the genetics have done really well for the McCorkells in the wether trials Mr Wilson runs.

AWN agent James Osborne, Deniliquin, bought on behalf of Bungeeltap Pty Ltd, Macedon, Vic, paying to $5200 for eight rams, averaging $3925.

“The Woodpark Poll rams do so well in our mixed rainfall environment and still produce beautiful wools, which is the reason we switched to them five years ago and continue to come back,” he said.

Other volume buyers included the Farrant family, Calimo Station, Deniliquin, who loaded 10 rams for a $2220 average, while Weir Farming, Barmedman, secured 10 rams averaging $1980, Coghill Farming, Urana, loaded five rams to $5000 averaging $3840.

The auction was conducted by Elders and Nutrien, with the stud continuing private selections in its grade ram selection days through early October.