"If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I would spend the first four hours sharpening the axe." ~ Abraham Lincoln
As I'm sure you know, our On Property Ram Sale is less than 2 short weeks away on Wednesday 18 September. Use the links below to add it to your calendar!
Add event to calendar
But that's not what this article is about. This is our regular monthly article in which we strive to provide you with useful information to help you in your journey to a profitable sheep enterprise AND the lifestyle you want.
We've all been caught up on sale day wandering around and around the rams on display, a hundred different thoughts crowding in our heads.
You take a second look at a ram you gave 3 ticks to and find something wrong with him. Then the one beside is a cracking animal, and you can't work out why you've got him crossed off. Did you accidentally mark the wrong animal??
Sale day can be stressful. We haven't even gotten to the bidding yet!
That's why today we will look at ways to focus in on the best rams for you so that you can have more clarity on sale day and maybe even be able to sit down and enjoy the lunch that has been provided.
Relax and enjoy looking at the sheep!
The best way we know is to:
- Get clear on what you want.
- Do the hard yards ahead of the sale.
- Spend your time on sale day wisely.
- Rank your shortlist and decide on your budget.
Get clear on what you want
If you haven't already, or if you need a refresher, go read our previous article on creating a genetic plan.
If you are not clear on your breeding objective, you will always be distracted by the biggest ram or the prettiest wool on sale day. But while that biggest, prettiest ram will be a good ram, he might not be the best ram for what YOU want to achieve on your farm.
So figure out and write down what will move you towards your goals.
Do the hard yards ahead of the sale
Get the catalogues from your ram supplier/s, grab a cup of tea, coffee or bone broth (maybe that last one is just me…) and spend a few hours looking at the data.
Focus on the priority traits that you decided on in the previous step.
I love excel, so I go through and use the filtering options to create cutoffs and rank the different traits I want. I might want only rams with YFAT above 0.8, YEMD over 1.5, YFD less than -1, YSL between 4 and 12, and a CF of 100. Then I could rank them by YCFW as a starting point for my selection.
If none of the acronyms mean anything to you, check out last month's article on reading sale catalogues!
If you prefer paper, get that catalogue printed out and look through each ram. As you go, circle the leaders in the traits you are chasing and put a red mark against the ones that are low.
However you do it, you want to highlight the rams that best match your breeding objectives and/or eliminate the rams that don't.
The end goal is a shortlist of rams that will move you closer to your goals based on what you can see in the data.
Of course, the data isn't the whole story. The one that looks best in the catalogue may have something wrong on sale day that you don't want, or has a different style of wool to what you prefer.
Therefore, your shortlist must be large enough to allow for rams to be struck off the list.
Your budget will also determine the size of your shortlist. If you are prepared to pay more money to get the best rams, your shortlist may only need to be 2-3 times the number of rams you need. Conversely, if you only have a small budget, you'll need to have a bigger shortlist.
You will also need a bigger shortlist if you put more emphasis on the way the rams look on sale day.
Auctions can be stressful, but you can minimise the stress!
Spend your time on sale day wisely
Now that you have a shortlist of rams, you can spend the majority of your time checking that those rams match what you want to see in a sheep - the right structure, wool type, body shape and so on.
I know you'll want to look at every animal anyway, but do that quickly to get it out of your system!
Then, take the time you need to carefully go through your shortlist. As you go, cross off rams that have something you don't want and rank the rest.
I like to assign a “star” or “tick” rating (eg 1 tick for a ram I'm happy with, but only if it's cheap, 5 ticks for one I really, really want).
I'll also write a brief comment on rams I'm considering so that I can remember which ram it is when I think back on it later. For example, “My pick”, or “Best wool, slightly off in front foot”, or “Has everything I want except a bit lower Fat”, or “Good all round but nothing outstanding”.
Rank your shortlist and decide on your budget
Once you've had a good look at each ram, go back over your list again.
I like to grab a separate piece of paper and write out all the rams I am happy to buy, along with their brief comment. The comment is to help you remember the ram when bidding starts.
Finally, go through and work out how much you are willing to spend on each ram. There will be some you buy only if they're a bargain, while you will be willing to spend more on those that match your breeding objectives perfectly.
Then it's time to grab that “free” lunch, settle in and buy some rams!
Top price ram bought online last year.
Remember,
Get your objectives clear.
Narrow down your selection using the catalogue.
Spend the time you need on those rams on sale day.
Have a clear, written down shortlist to keep you on track during the auction.
All the best to everyone on your ram purchasing this year. I hope you are able to find and buy rams that fit your goals and lifestyle!
Kind regards
The Rissmerino Team
