A mixed grazing operation in the Central Tablelands is benefiting from breeding their own sires for their large scale sheep and cattle enterprises.
Using Merinoselect Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) and results from wether trials and the Merino Sire Evaluation sites, brothers Dan and Steve Owen along with their father John, select the sires they aim to use through artificial insemination (AI) in their nucleus flock to breed their rams.
This was a stand out part of their business that interested fellow entrants and sheep enthusiasts at the 26th annual Bathurst Merino Association Maiden Ewe Competition earlier this month, an event the Owens' displayed 1350 ewes in. They were awarded second place and the inaugural people's choice award.
RELATED READING:
The Owens family has been farming at The Lagoon since around 1912 with their 3250 hectare property Nanena always used for grazing cattle and sheep.
They join around half of their ewes to Merinos and the remaining half to terminal sires, usually White Suffolk.
"It is a bit of both classed out and older ewes that go to terminals so we have the option of selling them in lamb, or as restocker lambs, or carry them through in a good season," Dan Owens said.
These options allow the family to easily manipulate their stocking rate with the ewe or lamb numbers they are carrying when the season gets tighter or a drought hits.
ALSO IN NEWS:
"We only buy in our terminal rams, and breed our own Merino rams, but we are traditionally Nerstane blood," he said. "We haven't purchased a Merino ram in 15 years."
In the 1930s the Owens' ran a stud, but that was deregistered in the 1950s and they have run a commercial operation since.
They use AI in their nucleus flock that consists of ewes that are identified through objective measurement of fibre diameter, body weight, and fleece weight, and visual selection components on top of that.
"We don't join (the nucleus flock) to AI every year, probably every two or three years, and keep around 50 rams for use," they said.
"We monitor the lambing status of the nucleus ewes, this is where fertility comes in."
Electronic identification (EID) tags are also used in the nucleus flock to simplify the process of data recording, monitoring and selection.
READ MORE:
Scanning everything on-farm for multiples and singles, they lamb in August/September with a few lambing in autumn on an opportunistic basis.
"All the information we collect goes through the MerinoSelect sheep genetics program, and we use that combined with visual to make selection," Steve Owens said.
Dan said they were trying to breed a moderate sheep with fine wool and plenty of length.
"Breeding our own rams is an interest to us, we enjoy what we are doing and feel we are breeding good rams," he said. "We have got a number of ewes, and it is cheaper than buying rams in."
Nerstane bloodlines were used as they are a objectively measured flock, and the stud's sheep are exposed to similar condition, including high summer rainfall, to the Nanena ewes.
"Wether trials, sire evaluations and Merinoselect ASBVs point us in the direction, and we choose the bloodline or sire line we want to use," he said.
The Owens' are using the same philosophy when it comes to their cattle enterprise that also contains a bull breeding unit.
They have been running a self-replacing Angus operation alongside their sheep since 1930, with the breed offering premiums and the best type of cattle for their country.
"We sell steers at around 15 months, at around 450 to 500 kilograms, into the feedlot job, and focus on marbling and fertility," Dan said.
Based on Rennylea blood, they use data in their decision making.
All calves are sire identified, and heifers are artificially inseminated to get genetic improvement and tighten up the calving window so they can keep a close eye on them during that time.
"It can be tempting to buy a good bull when you see one, but you have to be disciplined and stick to what you are doing and breeding towards," they said.
Developing their skills, for the past three years the Owens family has taken part in the Merino Lifetime Ewe Management Course.
"It has been good for improving lambing percentage and monitoring ewe body condition score," Dan said.
It also helped them manage through the drought, and ensuring their ewes were receiving the necessary nutritional requirements.
"We had 5000 ewes in drought lots at one point," he said. "We dropped numbers (in the drought) a bit but we came out the other end holding good numbers - in a normal season we would be fully stocked."
Across all their ewes they an average lambing percentage of 112 per cent over the last three years.
Their adult ewes cut on average six kilograms of 16.8 micron wool, with a normal classing out percentage of 30p that is done by Steve.
"Some of the classed out are retained to join to terminals," Dan said.
Solely a grazing operation the livestock run on mostly perennial pastures of Phalaris and sub clover, and then fodder crops grown throughout winter.
"We do have a lucerne fodder enterprise, and there is some brassicas in their also - turnips and grazing canola, whatever fits the feed gap," he said.
The Owens family will look at correcting mating to improve tip structure, by putting nourished sires over ewes with drier tips, following feedback from the judges in the Bathurst Maiden Ewe Competition.
They are also interested in the use of DNA technologies such as genomics.
Have you signed up to The Land's free daily newsletter? Register below to make sure you are up to date with everything that's important to NSW agriculture.
