Stock and Land Sheep Week is a great opportunity to welcome people to a stud, without pressure for them to buy a ram.
That’s according to Malcolm Starritt, a partner with Womboota Pastoral, in Moama, Victoria.
They are continuing the philosophy of renowned Kelso Park stud that Malcolm’s great grandfather George Starritt founded.
“We’ve been strong on constitution and now we’re also measuring things that can’t be seen such as lower birth weights and earlier maturing,” Mr Starritt said.
“This is so people can make bigger margins on first-cross operations with the same amount of work.”
He said participating in the inaugural Sheep Week was a good chance to show the stud and commercial sides of the operation and to demonstrate to visitors the importance of good genetics and balanced sheep.
Mr Starritt intends to display first-cross ewes with lambs at-foot, first-cross ewe lambs, as well as Border Leicester rams and ewes.
“Hopefully in June people will have their crops in and can take a day to visit a lot of different sheep studs to find what suits their operations,” he said.
As part of the Australian Sheep Breeders Association (ASBA), which runs the Australian Sheep and Wool Show, Mr Starritt said Sheep Week complemented shows, as people could see a stud’s nucleus at existing events and then see from where these show teams came and the entire flock at an open day.
“There are many good sheep producers and to have the privilege of supplying rams to them, we have to be on top of our game,” he said.
Beef Week is such a big event in Victoria that Fairfax Media wanted to replicate it for sheep, national livestock manager Brett Tindal said. “No-one’s offering anything like this in the industry. Throughout Victoria in one week, people can visit studs of a multitude of breeds,” Mr Tindal said.
He said because it was on-farm, it was an easy way for people to promote their studs. For commercial producers, they can travel in their local area for one day or go further afield to check out new genetics.
Stock and Land livestock sales representative Justin Conlan said people will see commercial sides of a farming operation, how studs operate and what they are striving to achieve. He said the team saw a need for a marketing option for small and medium sized operations.
Sheep Week is planned for June, before major sheep events. Fairfax Media is tapping into its commercial network to get sponsors to help studs promote themselves.
