Stud master Phillip Russell was rewarded with a full clearance of 69 rams for a line-up he described as the best draft in their 21 years.

Interest from both stud and local commercial breeders drove both the clearance and prices up from last year, with a $7500 top and $1995 average achieved (up from a 73 per cent clearance, $2000 top and $868 average).

Tenalba 28-19 was the $7500 high-selling ram that was picked up by Kegra Border Leicesters, Temora.

Sired by Tenalba 219-17 and out of a ewe that has bred several stud sires in the past, he was born a triplet and was described by Mr Russell as a phenotypically and genotypically well-balanced ram.

He had Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) of 0.35 for birthweight (BWT), 1.4 for maternal weight (MWT), 6.3 for weaning weight (WWT), 10.2 for postweaning weight (PWT), -0.3 for postweaning fat (PFAT) and 1 for postweaning eye muscle depth (PEMD).

The Kegra stud is a repeat buyer of Tenalba, having now purchased around four rams since 2009 including last year's $2000 sale-topper.

Jim Davies of Greenhills Partnership, Woodstock, bought the $3200 second top-priced ram, Tenalba 42-19. He was by Tenalba 40-17, and had ASBVs of 0.36 for BWT, 1 for MWT, 7.4 for WWT, 11.3 for PWT, -0.8 for PFAT and 0.8 for PEMD.

Grenhills Partnership were the largest volume buyers taking home 22 rams.

Stud interest also came from Sam Lisle, who is going to be taking over Chain-O-Ponds Border Leicester stud at Walcha in the near future.

He was the loosing bidder on the $7500 top-priced ram, but was successful in purchasing two rams including the triplet-born Tenalba 105-19 for $2400 and twin-born Tenalba 112-19 for $2300.

Both repeat and new buyers were operating, with rams mostly staying in the region except for those secured by studs, according to Mr Russell.

The sale was conducted by Allan Gray and Co.