Ram Sale

One of the things that I really love about being a pastor is being able to have the opportunity to share in people’s lives and also the life of the community. And here in the country it seems community is a big thing. 

Last week I went with one of the local farmers from church to a ram sale at a local stud. I’ve never been to a ram sale before and so I didn’t know what to expect. For those of you who have never been to one either let me quickly explain what they are. 

Ram sales are held by people that breed rams. These rams are then bought in an auction by farmers who take them back to their own farm who in turn use them to, as I think is the technical term, “service their ewes” as part of their breeding program. 

The ram sale is held in a big shearing shed. At this sale there were 176 rams up for auction. Each Ram has it’s own pen, and all the pens are arranged in rows 15 pens long. Now if you are a farmer interested in buying a ram you arrive maybe 2 hours before the auction starts to peruse the auction items.  Judging which rams to buy by their size, their wool. In fact (and I am saying this not to be rude but merely from a technical point of view) even the size of the ram’s testicles gets a look in; the bigger they are the more “ewes they can service”. 

Then at the set time the auction starts. Hat’s off to the Auctioneer, he auction/speed talked his whole way through all 176 rams in what seemed a matter of minutes (in reality it was a few hours) without a break. I bet his throat was sore by the end of it though. Anyway all sold and from what I heard it was a great sale for both the buyers and sellers.

It was a win for me as well, did I mention that there was free gourmet food on offer. The ram sellers put on morning tea, afternoon tea, and lunch. And despite the large turnout no one went hungry. For lunch we had a roast lamb that was to die for along with homemade lamb pies. For both morning tea and afternoon tea there was cakes and slice also to die for.

Not bad for a days work.