More than 200 rams will be offered at Blair and Sally Robertson’s 16th annual on-farm ram sale in Waikoikoi next week.
The weather this season had been the toughest the district had endured in more than 100 years.
"It has been a bastard down here since March," Mr Robertson said succinctly.
A "wet summer, no autumn and a cold hard, wet winter and a horrendous spring" had made farming challenging and he reckoned he would never see another season like that.
The rams had been "living on the smell of an oily rag" for eight months.
"We are well over 17 stock units to the hectare, so we are stocked up to the gunnels — it’s ridiculous, but with debt levels and everything else, you’ve got to be. And these sheep have to perform under those conditions — and look at the state of them after running on nothing for eight months, they still have constitution."
He was proud of the commercial traits of his rams, including carcass conformation.
"They’re grunters."
Feed had started growing on his farm recently. There were no paddocks to shut up for baleage and no summer crops in the ground.
A spike in lamb deaths had made slink-skin collectors busier than usual.
However, he was "astounded" by the number of lambs which survived to tailing.
A normal tailing percentage was 167%.
He put the 154% figure down to his breeding programme focusing on traits such as skin thickness and wool cover.
"Wool is not just to make money — it’s survival in adverse conditions."
A breeding programme should focus on producing quality wool.
"For us it is an animal welfare issue or they would just die like flies," he said.
The wool on the Romney rams for sale had an average micron of 40.3, curvature average of 48.8 and comfort factor average of 18.5.
" In human terms this means that we have got heavy, extremely soft handling, long staple, good colour, quality wool."
A rise in processor schedule price for lambs and ewes compared to last year had him feeling "pretty good" about the prospects of his upcoming ram sale on December 3.
"There is light at the end of the tunnel."
He shared the positivity and paid $10,000 for a ram from Waimai Romney in Waikato earlier this month.
