The weather here at Boomey has been tough enough this year. Rainfall below average and just plain heat or very windy weather in November -with the odd frost thrown in to confuse the issue! But we are blessed to have dry feed on the ground and our prayers go out to all for rain.

At the moment despite dry conditions, we are all favoured with great lamb prices. Who would have thought we would be getting $11-12 dollars a kilo for lamb and current mutton prices makes it easier to replace old with new breeding stock. It is very rare that all the stars align in the sheep market!

The results from our September 2025 sale were very encouraging for our SheepMasters, with a total clearance and Rams sold for an average price of $1860 per head. The top price ram sold for $4600 (Lot 4) with a muscle depth of 45 and a fat score of 8. He was a pretty special boy alongside his mate Lot 2 who sold for $4400. Lot 2 had a huge muscle score of 48 and a fat score of 9. Both boys were March 2024 drop and weighed in excess of 100 kilos each. Just big solid meaty rams which is what we are all looking for: better carcass, conformation, big muscle scores and good fat scores.

The sale of Australian White rams struggled on the day with the top price Ram being sold for $1900. Some others were passed in but by the following week all had been sold and off to new homes. The Australian Whites seem to be losing ground a little to the SheepMasters, as buyers are looking for a better bodied animals with hybrid vigour. But in saying that we will always be breeding and selling Australian Whites because we do love them and they give our clients the option to join the progeny of their SheepMasters back to Australian Whites to maintain hybrid vigour without interbreeding issues.

One of the features of the sale were the 3 Lots sold of young shedding SheepMaster ewes. They topped at $450 per head for a pen of 12 ewes, with an overall average price of $436 per head across the pens. The average weight of these girls was 45kg liveweight.

We would like to thank all our clients who have supported our sales. The great news is that over the past three sales we have always donated the proceeds of Lot 1 to Beyond Blue, a really important cause especially the way things are in the bush these days. With the help of the bidders at these sales, a total of just under $10,000 has been raised in support for this wonderful charity, which in turn relates to an awful lot of counselling hours to help people. Thank you.

A lot of our clients have asked us why we call our SheepMasters Composites. It is actually a really good question and now even some of our fellow SheepMaster studs are asking the same question. We wanted to be upfront with our clients from the beginning of our journey with this breed. In 2021 we were the first successful stud to cross Australian White Stud ewes with two SheepMaster sires from WA using AI. We were just being honest when we called them Composites. By adding Australian White genetics, we actually put the ninth breed in the SheepMaster. It is that simple.

When we first looked at the SheepMasters in 2021 they were described to us by the founding breeder as a concept, a type of Shedding sheep that embraces all the best features of an animal including carcass, conformation, shedding, walkability etc Many SheepMasters Studs also started with some sort of other breed such as Wiltipol, White Suffolk etc. There are now nine different parts to the SheepMaster we breed. So, we are going to drop the word "Composite" and just call them SheepMasters because that's what they are!

We are also now embarking on breeding a new line of shedding sheep using some of our ewes. In mid-December we are commencing a new AI program with another breed very popular in Western Australia: the Kojak. As the name implies from the old TV series (if anybody has seen it) you may remember the lead star, a bald-headed Telly Savalas! Pretty handy shedders, they have good conformation, solid breeding figures and hopefully more hybrid vigour. Time will tell.

In our other exciting news, The Cliffs recently purchased in conjunction with Janaree SheepMaster Stud from Cobar, 4 new SheepMaster sires to add to our genetic pool. After a rigorous bio-security period, two of the Rams have been introduced to some of our top Stud ewes and we look forward to seeing the results from April 2026 onwards! The other two Rams have gone to Cobar to work with an exchange anticipated early in 2026.

We will be once again using Anthony Shepherd from SheepMatters in the coming weeks to pedigree our latest SM and AW progeny. Whilst we don't like too much technology, when you are on an accelerated stud lambing program, (three lambing’s every two years), Anthony’s sheep collars make a huge difference in matching progeny to their mums. We simply place an electronic collar on the lambs and another on the ewes, a few days later through blue tooth technology and scanning the collars, we have a pedigree through matching their electronic ear tags.

Finally, all our February 2026 Sale Rams already selected have had their first muscle scan etc last month to see who makes the cut to get into the sale. The rams will be scanned again in late January and weighed. These raw data figures we feel are so vitally important if you are buying a ram. The eye muscle measurement along with the fat score and weight for age tell us so much about what the animal will pass on to his progeny and how it will affect your lamb production.

Our 5th On Farm Sale is set down for the 18th February 2026 at 1.00pm As usual, inspections will be from 11.00 am and we will be preparing something tasty for lunch.

For those who cannot make the sale in person next February, there will be a slight change if you wish to bid online. We have engaged StockLive for our next sale. They will have a representative on site to assist so even if you cannot log in or have other difficulties, you can ring the StockLive representative who will be there to help you or even do your bidding if necessary, in an emergency.

Please take a look at the StockLive website, download the App. It is really easy to use and to navigate. We are now seeing a host of other sheep studs for their auctions using this new On-line Bidding Platform StockLive - simply because it works.

The sale rams will be up on the StockLive website a few weeks before the February sale and we more than welcome pre-sale inspections. As always, we will deliver stock for up to 200kms to the nearest centre.

From the team at The Cliffs Shedding Sheep Stud we would like to wish all our clients a very happy Christmas and a wet and prosperous New Year. Hope you all get some well deserved rest and time spent with loved ones.

Kindest regards

Phil and Judi

These are two new SheepMaster sires introduced a few weeks ago to our Stud line up .

Sheepmaster composite rams bring the bids at The Cliffs spring sale

The Land - By Rebecca Nadge - September 24 2025 - 6:00pm

Buyers were clear in their breed of choice at Phil and Judi Thompson's The Cliffs Sheepmaster composite and Australian White ram sale at Molong on September 24.

Demand was solid for the Sheepmaster composites, with 40 of 43 selling to a $4600 top to average $1888.

The top-priced ram was The Cliffs 24678, a Garnett Sheepmaster Apollo 20P073 descendent.

The April-2024 drop was born a single and weighed 100 kilograms with 41 millimetres eye muscle depth and 6.5mm fat.

He sold to John Atkins, Tepa Pty Ltd, Guyra. Mr Atkins said his current flock had about 2000 Australian White ewes, but he was changing the operation's direction and looking to move towards Sheepmasters to gain more meat.

The operation sent all its lambs to a butcher shop in Armidale, which was owned by another section of the business.

Along with the top ram, Mr Atkins bought another five to average $3183 in total.

The second top-priced ram was The Cliffs 24724, 108kg, which sold for $4400 to GE and JJ Burbidge, Crookwell.



The March-2024, single-born ram scanned 48mm EMD and 9mm fat. He was by The Cliffs Kingsman 22122, a Garnet Sheepmaster Monarch 19G384 son.

The Burbidges also bought the top-priced Australian White ram, The Cliffs 24137, 109kg, by Baringa 21A148, for $1900.

Return buyer John McIsaac, Gulargambone, bought 10 Sheepmasters to average $1140. As the volume buyer, Mr McIsaac was gifted a Yeti camp chair, donated by The Rural Centre, Molong.

Lockie Miller, Kevin Miller Whitty Lennon, was bidding for Parkes operation Wallah Walla. Mr Miller selected eight Sheepmasters to average $1750 and two Australian Whites at $800 each.

He said he was after rams with growth for age, muscle depth and fat, and also good shedding ability.

The Haling family, Gulargambone, were new buyers at the stud, selecting three Sheepmaster rams and one Australian White to average $1800.

The Cliffs also continued its tradition of offering a charity ram with the proceeds donated to Beyond Blue. The Cliffs 24745 was knocked down to an online bidder for $1400.

Three pens of 12 Sheepmaster/Australian White-cross ewes, born between November and April and averaging 45kg, were also offered.

Return buyer Leanne Tremain, bidding as West Timbie Pastoral Company, Yeoval, selected the top pen for $450 a head.

Ms Tremain said she had had bred first-cross ewes to Australian Whites and was now in the third generation of breeding the progeny back to shedding rams.

The ewes would help build up her shedding sheep numbers.

The buyer of the top ram, Mr Atkins, purchased one of the pens for $440 a head, with the remaining 12 selling to Primrose Valley Cabinet, Kangaroobie, for $420.

Demand was subdued for the Australian White rams, with four of 13 averaging $1075.

Phil Thompson, The Cliffs, said it was a good result and it was clear buyers were chasing the stud's Sheepmaster composites.

He said there were some nice rams in the Australian Whites draft, but buyers were chasing better-bodied animals with more meat and The Cliffs would focus on the Sheepmasters for its February sale.

The ewe prices were particularly strong, he said, and the sheep had come through winter well despite the tougher season.

The sale was conducted by Nutrien Milling Thomas with Peter and Sam Thomas sharing the rostrum. AuctionsPlus provided the online interface.

The 2024 top cut of Australia's terminal, maternal and composite ram studs

The Land - By Andrew Norris - Updated January 2 2025 - 7:31am, first published 5:00am

This year's meat, dual purpose and composite ram market may not have had the highs of last year, but it has better reflected a less erratic lamb market.



The trade lamb indicator spent most of the first half of the year at 550-700c/kg before lifting in July to sit at 775-870c/kg thereafter, while tough seasonal conditions in the more southerly regions of the country also weighed on lamb producers' confidence.

The top 10 included eight shedding breed studs, six Dorper/White Dorper, one Ultra White, two Poll Dorset studs - one being part of Oberon stud Tattykeel's offering who's Australian White sale was also the only representative from that breed - plus one White Suffolk stud.

Agent, Randal Grayson, at Forbes Livestock, Forbes, NSW, said the shift to shedding breeds has been a gradual build.

"Once upon a time they were known as the exotic breeds and had to be penned separately at the saleyards," he said.

However, demand through winter and an increased acceptance by processors and consumers had resulted in more Victorian buyers coming north and purchasing Dorpers in particular when their local lamb supplies were seasonally low.



"The last couple of years we've seen they were actively strong on the shedding breeds (at the saleyards), especially the better end of the Dorpers," Mr Grayson said.

"We saw this year in the winter months at Forbes for the first time 10 and up to 20 per cent of the yarding as shedding breeds.

"Only two weeks ago Dorpers topped the lamb market at $297.20/head at Forbes."

Once upon a time they were known as the exotic breeds and had to be penned separately at the saleyards.

- Randall Grayson, Forbes.

While we've listed the top 10 studs here, there were also a handful that just missed the cut, but also exceeded a $3000 average price - a level that seems tantalisingly close for a huge number of vendors across the industry.

That handful includes Kaya Dorper and White Dorper, Narrogin, WA, averaging $3227 for all 104 rams offered and sold; Melashdan Dorper and White Dorper, Tumby Bay, SA, averaging $3118 for all 102 rams offered and sold; The Cliffs Australian White, Boomey, NSW, averaging $3112 for all 78 rams offered and sold, and Red Hill Australian White, Wongarbon, NSW, also averaging $3112 for all 78 rams it offered and sold - these studs also consolidating that dominance of the shedding breeds among the top end of sales.