BREED sheep for profit per hectare, not per head was the message given to the 50-plus crowd attending the 2014 GRASS Merinos Field Day at “Sunnyside”, Armatree, last Thursday, April 10.
It came from manager and classer of the Western Australian Merinotech stud of Kojonup Ian Robertson who said he had 74 pieces of information on every sheep within his flock.
The Merinotech stud flock breeds some of the highest performance and most profitable Merinos in Australia.
“Conditions in our country are very different from this eastern area; we have six months of heat and six months of growth,” Mr Robertson said.
Performance testing has been carried out within the flock since 1988.
Co-ordinator of the field day and chairman of GRASS Merinos board Graham Peart introduced the new stud manager Callum Moody who came from “Abbadoah”, Cunnamulla, Queensland, and whose father has been buying Grass Merino rams for the past seven years.
Prior to Mr Robertson’s outline of his operation, the crowd was given an in-depth presentation by renowned sheep dog breeder and trainer Greg Prince who demonstrated his and his Border Collies’ sheep handling skills.
Later in the morning J.B. Tancred, co-manager with his wife Alison, “The Maze”, Gulargambone, presented an interesting insight into Merino sheep breeding values and their influence in The Maze flock through membership of GRASS Merinos and use of GRASS stud rams, entitled “What The Maze gets out of GRASS Merinos”.
The morning ended with a barbecue lunch and an inspection of the 2014 stud rams and sires.
Mark Griggs
Journalist for The Land at Dubbo.
Journalist for The Land at Dubbo.
