2024 National Rambouillet Sale held in Texas 

The 2024 National Rambouillet Show and Sale and National Junior Show were held June 20-22 at the Tarleton State University Animal and Plant Sciences Arena in Stephenville, Texas. Consignors from multiple states made the trip south to consign some of the top genetics in the country. 

Overall, 57 total head sold for an average of $907.89 per head with registered buyers from Indianna, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Top-selling rams

Auctioneer Gabe Spikes of Blanket, Texas got the sale rolling with lot 6, a polled yearling ram consigned by Parker Munz of Moody, Texas, which was named the 2024 National Champion Ram in the national show judged by Dr. Will Dickison of San Angelo, Texas. 

The ram sold to an undisclosed buyer for $950. 

The 2024 Reserve National Champion Ram was another Texas ram, an early fall ram lamb consigned by Dr. Sam Jackson of Lubbock, Texas. He went east to Aidan Fermier of Ohio for $500. 

The high-selling ram was an extremely stout polled yearling ram consigned by Leib Livestock of Oklahoma. He sold to Marshall Sheep Company of South Dakota for $5,600. 

Other top-selling rams included a Chapman Rambouillets ram out of South Dakota, which went to an undisclosed buyer for $1,500 and a Benz Rambouillet ram out of Kansas, which went to Paisley Smith of Texas for $650. 

Riley Waldrop of Texas sold a late fall ram lamb for $750 to Dakoda Miller, also from Texas. 

Borcher Sheep Company of Wyoming sent a ram to the Leib Family for $1,000. 

Several other rams sold in the $500 to $600 range, with Chapman Rambouillets closing out the ram portion of the sale strong, selling a February ram lamb to Sadie and Addie Buffe of Texas for $3,900. 

Top-selling females

In the female portion of the sale, the 2024 National Champion Ewe was lot 16F, an early fall ewe lamb consigned by Kott Ranch of Texas, which went to an undisclosed buyer for $1,000. 

The Reserve National Champion Ewe, consigned by Kimberlyn Kindell of Texas, also sold for $1,000 to an undisclosed buyer. 

The yearling ewes started out strong with the high-selling ewe of the sale, consigned by Dew Drop Farms of New York Mills, Minn. and selling to Vivian Stephenson of North Carolina for $3,500. 

Borcher Sheep Company sold another nice yearling ewe to Maddox Chapman of Bison, S.D. for $900. 

The yearling ewes averaged an extremely strong $1,300 per head. 

In the early fall ewe lamb portion of the sale, lot 72F consigned by Dew Drop Farms and Lot 37F consigned by Marshall Sheep Company both sold to an undisclosed buyer for $800 a piece. 

Dew Drop Farms also sent a late fall ewe lamb to the same undisclosed buyer for another $800. 

Averaging a strong $916.66 per head, the January ewe lambs had a nice start when Chapman Rambouillets sold lot 45F to Johan and Josef Grotegut of Texas for $2,000. Chapman Rambouillets also sent lot 46F to Kindell for $750. 

The top February ewe lamb was consigned by Kott Ranch. She went to the Groteguts for $2,200. 

Dew Drop Farms sold another nice ewe lamb to an undisclosed buyer for $1,050, while Borcher Sheep Company finished up the sale with a $1,000 lamb, going home to Texas with the Buffes. 

National Junior Rambouillet Show

Prior to the 2024 National Show and Sale, the 2024 National Junior Rambouillet Show was held. 

Munz sat at the top of the leaderboard with both the National Champion Ram and the National Champion Ewe, while Ty Jones of Kansas exhibited the Reserve Champion Ram and the Reserve Champion Ewe. 

Jones was also named the 2024 Junior Showmanship Champion, while Johan Grotegut of Hereford, Texas took home the Champion Senior Showman title.

Along with the National Junior Show, youth competed in a sheep dress up contest, poster contest and wool judging contest, as well as a cornhole tournament and skillathon. 

Adults were also allowed to participate in the skillathon and wool judging contest. 

In the 2024 National Fleece Show, the University of Wyoming’s Laramie Research and Extension Center exhibited the champion ram fleece, while Kott Ranch had the champion ewe fleece. 

At the annual meeting, Darin Bauck of Minnesota was elected to a second term as president of the American Rambouillet Sheep Breeders Associaiton (ARSBA) Board of Directors, while Stephen Munz of Texas was elected to a second term as vice president. 

Alison Borcher of Wyoming was named to a board role in an at-large position, while Burt Anderson of Highmore, S.D. and Beau Chapman of Bison, S.D. were reelected as well.

During the award presentations and annual junior fundraiser auction, $8,000 was raised for the Burk and Bernie Lattimore Scholarship Program. The 2024 scholarship recipients were Ragan Levien of Texas and Grant Luedtke of Wisconsin. 

Topping off the annual banquet was the presentation of the ARSBA Legacy Award to the Eckhoff family for their many years as a top producers and advocates for the Rambouillet breed, with the late Leon Eckhoff being instrumental in getting the National Junior Rambouillet Show established back in 1989. 

The ARSBA wishes to thank all the hosts from Texas for their hard work and dedication in putting together the 2024 event and Tarleton State University and Zhan Aljoe for all of their hospitality and assistance in allowing the association to hold their event at the Animal and Plant Sciences Center and Arena.

The ARSBA was very fortunate to have a great set of corporate and individual sponsors from both the Stephenville area, as well as across the state of Texas, along with award sponsors from other parts of the country. 

ARSBA has been committed to producing the highest-quality meat and fleece available in one breed of sheep. This article is courtesy of ARSBA.