Experienced dog breeder and trialler Wayne Gelven, Tintinara, has topped the second annual Lucindale Working Dog Auction with a four-year old and four month trained kelpie, Mulga, showing plenty of talent.
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The first-time vendor, who has been breeding kelpies for more than 30 years but normally sells dogs privately, said he put the dog into the sale to support the event and maximise buyer competition.
"Because Mulga is line bred I couldn't use him over my bitches and I have his full sister and other relations home so I thought I'd let him go," he said.
"I wanted to get pretty good money for him so I thought the auction system was the best way to go."
The catalogue was live on AuctionsPlus for five days leading up to the sale and when pre-bidding concluded the dog had reached $15,500.
With no further bidding on sale day, Mulga was knocked down to Gamadale Australian White sheep stud, Lascelles, Vic.
In his auction description Mr Gelven describes Mulga as a "medium casting, medium eyed dog with good cover and a firm hold."
"Mulga is a quality dog and he is good at what he does," he said.
Mr Gelven breeds about 30 pups a year in his Yanven stud and sells about 10 trained or half broken in dogs, along with being a livestock contractor.
"It (Dog breeding) started out as a hobby and is still only a small exercise but is good enough that I can make half my living out of it and I don't have to get a real job," he joked.
"I have bought pups from a lot of good breeders from around Australia and kept very few as they were not quite what I wanted so by breeding them I breed closer to what I want."
"Then I line breed them so I set a type and breed true to type."
Renae Reynolds, Hexham, Vic, received the $14,750 second highest price with her kelpie dog Titania Park Tri, which sold to a buyer at Westmere, Vic.
Loxton's Lee Mickan received $14,500 for two year old Mickans Diesel.
The proceeds of the final lot, an eight month old pup bred by Paula Whitbread, Bordertown, was donated to the SA Yard Dog Association. The dog, Ryoma Axel which sold with free entry to a dog school made $6500.
Overall 31 of 43 dogs and pups at various stages of work from started to trained averaged $6718.
Twenty two of these dogs remained in SA with lots also selling to Vic, NSW and Qld.
Of the 12 dogs that failed to sell many of them got bids but fell short of the vendor reserves. Two of these sold after the sale.
Auction secretary Kylie Ware said it was always going to be difficult to replicate last year's "ripper sale" where 29 dogs topped at $29,000 and averaged $9862.
"It was not as much as we hoped but good dogs still sold well, especially those with realistic reserves," she said.
"We tried to group the dogs in groups of fours of similar ability in the catalogue but with some high reserves it was hard to get the momentum going, as organisers I don't think we could have done anything more."
Mrs Ware said the committee was pleased to sell a couple more than dogs than the 2021 sale. The lower average followed the same trend seen at the recent Jerilderie, NSW, and Casterton, Vic, working dog auctions.
She said they were committed to SA's only working dog auction "well into the future" and said demand for good working dogs remained strong.
"To put on a basic station hand you are looking at $45,000 -$50,000 (a year) plus super and sick days whereas a dog asks for none of that," she said.
The not-for-profit event donated $10,000 back to seven organisations in the Lucindale community after the 2021 sale.
Elders conducted the sale with Laryn Gogel and Ronnie Dix the auctioneers.
