Ram prices jump in the Chathams

Press, 18 March 1983, Page 21

Ram prices jump in the Chathams

Prices for Romney rams showed remarkable increases on previous years at the Chatham Islands eleventh annual ram fair recently. The average price for a total clearance of 100 rams was $l3B compared with about $6O in the last few years. A ram bred by Mrs V. Tuanui topped the fair at $390 and was bought by Mr Graham Seymour. Mrs Tuanui averaged $l5B for 25 rams and Mr Malcolm Lanauze sold 39 rams at an average price of $159. Mr Lindsay Galloway, sheep and beef officer with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in Christchurch, who has been working with three breeders in the Chatham Islands for the last 18 years, said he was very pleased with the standard of rams presented for sale.

They were well grown, robust rams, wintered on Chatham Island pastures with no supplementary feeding, and presented in natural condition. Chatham Island bred rams had increased in popularity because they settled easily into conditions elsewhere on the Chathams, had known genetic backgrounds, were economically priced and farmers could select their own, said Mr Galloway. In co-operation with the three breeders — Mrs Tuanui, Mr Lanauze and Mr Joe Tuanui — Mr Galloway sorted the rams into pens for type, size and records. Only 50 per cent of the rams born are offered for sale.

Mr Galloway said no definite reason for the price increase could be offered. The open-faced rams were of a good standard and more buyers than usual supported the fair with competition being very strong.

An estimated 80 per cent of farmers on the Chathams supported the fair as well as farmers from nearby Pitt Island. Demand was so strong that further sales were made after the fair of rams not .entered.

With the exception of three pens, all sheep were plus indexes on Sheeplan and a number of pens were plus for breeding value on fertility,

fleece weight, and weaning weight. The sale was held under cover for the first time, in the woolshed and covered yards of Mr Tuanui. The rams were penned and viewed in the yards and moved to the raised board to be sold.

The rams paraded on a piece of red carpet while being sold by Mr George Herbert, a fisherman who holds an auctioneer’s licence.

Ram prices had been too low in the past, but Chatham Island farmers had gained a lot of confidence in the fair and now knew what the rams could achieve in terms of survival rate and increased production, said Mr Galloway. Several purchasers had agreed that they were starting to pay prices closer to their worth.

Any reasonable ram purchased from the mainland

would cost about $230 landed on the Chatham Islands, with the risk of a 25 per cent loss over a lifetime and the added disadvantage of the farmer not seeing what he had bought before the ram arrived, said Mr Galloway. About $14,000 changed hands during the fair and, by adding to that figure the difference between the average price and the cost of buying rams from the mainland, about $lB,OOO, would stay on the Chathams, said Mr Galloway. Each year Mr Galloway selects two or three stud rams in Canterbury for the Chatham Island breeders. These selections are based on open faces, large frames and Sheeplan records.

Forty per cent of the twotooths from each of the three studs are selected as female replacements each year.