THE pine forests and undulating hills near Rockley are the ideal setting for one of the Bathurst Flock Ewe Competition's top flocks.
Terry Dolbel and his wife Kath, "Milton Vale", run about 5500 breeding ewes and won this year's competition.
This year's event was a showcase of the winners from the past 10 years.
The Dolbels' ewes had about 12 months of wool on them prompting judge Graham Coddington, Catombal Pastoral Company, Yeoval, to describe them as "little wool factories."
In their mixed farming enterprise of Merinos, cattle and cropping on 2140 hectares, wool is a big focus for the Dolbels.
They have shifted the focus of their program to breed quantity, which in today's markets is paying better than quality.
"(We) used to be paid good money for good wool, (we) just don't get that anymore," Mr Dolbel said.
He selects for heavy rams and when selecting ewes goes for the bigger types and crosses any smaller ewes with bigger rams to correct the type.
Mr Dolbel believes in corrective breeding traits, as opposed to fixing the flock's problems through culling.
"If culling was really successful you wouldn't have to do it for 30 to 40 per cent of your flock," he said.
He started breeding his own commercial rams in 1998, buying a few rams from Nestane, at Woolbrook, and Lorelmo Poll Merinos, Armidale, and branching from those bloodlines.
He said breeding his own could be a bit hit and miss.
"But we normally get around 30 good rams from a drop and the rest get sold at the saleyards as culls," he said.
He joins his ewes once yearly for a September/October lambing with a lambing rate for the past three years of 95 per cent to 98pc.
Shearing occurs in March and the main wool line for the 2014 cut averaged 6.4 kilograms a head, while the hoggets cut 3kg.
Excess ewes are sold out of the paddock to restockers, many of whom are repeat buyers.
The Dolbels run all their sheep to about four and a half years old and then sell them.
The wethers are sold through the saleyards.
Mr Dolbel's outlook is to increase the wool cut as years go on.
A big help to his flock's direction was when, in 2005, he bought a Nerstane ram for about $10,000.
"And he made all the changes, he gave us a big kick along," he said.
The ram is about eight years old now and Mr Dolbel said the purchase worked out to be cheap "because the lambs were so good".
"It's always the way, the cheap ones cost you more money and the expensive ones set you up."
He has also bought rams from Langdene Merinos at Dunedoo as a trial for "Milton Vale" because of their ability to cut a heavy fleece.
He said the first offspring from these rams would go across the board next shearing so he would see how they performed then.
Predators, meanwhile, were a big issue at "Milton Vale".
Foxes, eagles and crows were the major pests.
"We lose about 20pc of our drop yearly to predators," he said.
"We are surrounded by pine forest and cattle farmers, so to foxes we are fair game."
The season at Rockley could do with a turn around, the Dolbels started feeding lambs about three weeks ago to maintain their weight.
Mr Dolbel is feeding them barley he bought last harvest.
Last year they sowed about 283ha of oats, this year they have sowed 97ha so far and if the season breaks, will plant more.
Mr Dolbel uses the oats as a supplementary feed in winter and then either strips or bales it, depending on the quality of the crop.
Investment in genetics the key at ‘Milton Vale’
THE Dolbel family of "Milton Vale", Rockley, finds purchasing top-notch genetics and then breeding rams to multiply their influence through the flock is a winning formula.
Their sheep have a background of Nerstane and Lorelmo blood and Langdene rams have recently been introduced.
"The ewes have a long staple and that rarely goes in hand with young sheep," Mr Dolbel said.
This year 93 per cent of the 2013 ewe drop of 750 lambs was retained as replacements within the commercial flock.
The fine/medium wool flock for the past three shearings recorded 17.8- to 18-micron fibre diameter for the adult fleeces, while hoggets for the same shearings recorded at 16.9- to 17.7-micron.
Mr Dolbel (pictured classing his own wool) said he used to hire a classer, but given he makes the breeding decisions he now sees value in doing it himself.
"I enjoy classing my own wool," he said
The main wool line for 2014 cut an average of 6.4 kilograms a head, while the hoggets cut and average of 3kg.
"They should be cutting a bit more this year," he said.
