AgriLife ram test sale average is highest in more than three decades
Most rams left Texas
Writer: Steve Byrns, 325-653-4576, s-byrns@tamu.edu
Contact: Dr. Dan Waldron, 325-653-4576, d-waldron@tamu.edu
SAN ANGELO – The top indexing ram of the 2014-2015 Texas A&M Ram Performance Test traveled back home, a test official said.
“The high indexing ram was a commercial animal owned by JP Family Limited Partnership, headquartered at Fort McKavett,” said Dr. Dan Waldron, Texas A&M AgriLife Research geneticist and the test’s coordinator at San Angelo.
The high selling ram was TAES 9065, an AgriLife Research-bred ram from the agency’s Sonora research station. The ram sold to the J.L. Glass Ranch at Big Spring for $2,400. The ranch bought a second animal for $1,800, making the purchaser the sale’s greatest total value buyer.
The March 18 sale totaled $16,650. The average price of $1,387.50 per head for the 12 head sold through the auction at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at San Angelo was the highest per head average recorded since 1981, Waldron said.
This year’s average price substantially topped last year’s $911.53 per head for near the same number of animals offered, Waldron said.
“The test’s main purpose is to identify and document superior rams to be used for flock improvement, so some breeders retain their animals rather than offering them for sale,” he said.
Other buyers purchasing three head each were Jock Sheehan, Dixon, Wyoming, and the University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho. Tracy Stamatakis of Magna, Utah, purchaser of last year’s top indexing/selling animal, also bought two rams.
“The majority of the rams went to buyers outside Texas,” Waldron said. “These out-of-state sheep producers see the Texas ram test as a way to obtain the benefits of generations of selection for finer wool, the key trait they were seeking. There are very few flocks that have the wool quality available at this sale. There are even fewer flocks that have documentation of that wool quality.”
The ram test has been conducted by AgriLife Research since 1948, Waldron said.
The high indexing ram completed the test weighing 274 pounds and produced 13.1 pounds of clean wool that measured 20.8 microns, according to test results.
Robbie Eckhoff, executive secretary of the American Rambouillet Sheep Breeders Association from Hawley, presented Bill Karnes of Sonora, the breeder of the test’s top indexing registered ram, with a certificate of merit to recognize the animal met all the association’s performance requirements during the test and had a superior index value among all the registered rams.
Waldron said 58 Rambouillet rams from six flocks completed the test.
“These rams come from some of the world’s best flocks in terms of rate-of-gain and desirable-fleece characteristics,” Waldron said.
The 140-day test is traditionally followed by an educational field day and sale conducted in cooperation with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.
During the educational meeting, Dr. Reid Redden, the incoming AgriLife Extension state sheep and goat specialist at San Angelo, presented his vision for the future in a talk titled Genetic Improvement for the 21st Century Sheep Industry. Redden is scheduled to be in place at the center on June 1.
Other speakers included Dr. John Walker, the San Angelo center’s AgriLife Research director of research and Dr. Ronald Pope, AgriLife Research scientist and head of the center’s Bill Sims Wool and Mohair Research Lab. They presented information about, and demonstrated the FibreLux, a small commercially available wool measuring unit developed in South Africa. They said the device may make measuring raw wool for average fiber diameter more affordable and convenient for breeders to evaluate wool quality on the ranch.
For more information on the Annual Ram Performance Test, pictures of the top indexing and selling animals and a complete listing of test and sale results, go to: http://sanangelo.tamu.edu and click on the “performance tests” link.
