Breeding group helps find the right ram

Before moving to 298-hectare property, "Icely", at Orange in 1989, from a smaller place down the road, Mr Wright ran the CRT Rural Centre, Orange, in partnership while also managing a prime lamb and cattle operation.

"I used to have first-cross ewes and prime lambs and ran a few cattle as well," he said.

"I sold off the cattle, intending to buy back in, but never did."

Mr Wright originally bought Merino sires from Merryville lines from a local producer.

"That fellow retired so I started to source rams from elsewhere."

After struggling to find rams to suit his operation, Mr Wright was able to broaden his search with a ram breeding group run through his work.

"We went to the New England area and one of the studs we visited was Yalgoo," he said.

Fifteen years on, Mr Wright is using Yalgoo rams in mid-February joinings with his Merino ewes on "Icely".

"I've tried different joining times but I always come back to this time - it just seems to work better."

The self-replacing flock, which includes about 2000 head in total, are run in smaller mobs, generally in age groups.

Maiden ewes are joined at 18 to 19 months of age, in the same program as the older ewes.

"Last year I didn't join the maidens - I hesitated a bit and there were a few unfortunate family events also."

Mr Wright said he had averaged about 80 per cent conception rate with the maiden ewes, which he planned on trying to improve.

Mr Wright gave the ewes a capsule before lambing and had found it to be a good strategy.

"I don't mollycoddle stock," he said.

"That way I get lambs on the ground without any worm problems coming through."

During lambing, Mr Wright puts the ewes on to the better paddocks on "Icely".

About half the property is sown to improved pastures using a mix of fescue, phalaris, rye, clover and a sprinkling of lucerne.

"I used to aerial spread fertiliser but it became too difficult to get a plane," he said.

"Some hilly country will probably miss out on fertiliser because I will have to get on to ground spreading."

Mr Wright said single superphosphate was spread on farm.

"Any pasture improvement I do gets DAP or some form of starter and that's where I lamb down the ewes."

Mr Wright said he also put a small crop of oats, which was baled to feed ewes and lambs as needed.

"At least you have it then and you can do whatever you want with it."

The whole flock is run through the shearing sheds in late October or early November.

"I knock the fluff off the lambs - they tend to do better in hotter weather and grow better."

This year, some wild weather put a dampener on shearing.

"We had shorn the wethers and we got all that cold weather - we had about two days supply of sheep in the shed so I thought we could get through them," Mr Wright said.

"We put the wethers out after shearing but had to bring them back in because half of them would have died."

The flock on "Icely" averaged 16.9-micron in the last lot of wool sold in November, which has decreased from an average of 19.5-micron before changing to Yalgoo genetics.

"I'm not concerned about chasing micron - I want to improve the quality of the wool and have a good body shape at the end."

Mr Wright also aims for good cutting sheep.

"The wethers are cutting about six kilograms skirted and some of the ewes would be close to that," he said.

Mr Wright said he planned on becoming a bit more strict on culling, particularly for structural traits such as feet.

"I tend to run a fairly young flock - generally nothing over four years."

This helped turn productivity and genetics over quicker, he said.

"Any gains Yalgoo is making in their breeding are locking into my flock quicker."

This also allowed Mr Wright to sell the younger ewes to the restocker market.

While he used to sell the ewes from the paddock, for the past few years Mr Wright had been selling his sheep through the Carcoar saleyards for ease and convenience.

"I sell about now, after shearing," he said.

"The only time that varied was a couple of years ago when I held them back and got another lamb from them to build numbers."

LES Wright would rather pay the top price for a ram he likes than come home with something cheaper, knowing he had the chance to buy a better ram.

A former shearer, Mr Wright's main focus is producing wool on 298-hectare Orange property "Icely".

His philosophy for buying rams is one to be admired.

"If you don't buy something you like, you come home with something else but you will know there is something better," he said.

"It's better just buying what you want and paying for it."

Mr Wright runs 2000 Merinos using Yalgoo genetics from the Nivison family's stud at Walcha.

Mr Wright's grandson, Charlie, 3, is pictured with a mob of "Icely" wethers.

Mr Wright started using Yalgoo sheep after visiting with a farm management group through his former business about 15 years ago.

"When I was at the CRT (in Orange) we started a farm management group with Phil Holmes to benefit our clients," Mr Wright said.

"We formed a ram breeding group within that."

Mr Wright said the company took clients on bus trips, visiting a range of properties including sheep studs, cattle producers and other prime lamb operations.