Pastora Newsletter - 1 Poll Merinos SEPTEMBER 2015 Welcome to our 2015 Newsletter. What a start we’ve had to the season. At the time of writing this, things are looking good in most areas with soil profiles full and we have a great reserve of moisture to take into the spring. Soil moisture probes around Lockhart are now showing we have more stored moisture than aſter the floods! Fingers crossed even an average spring should give us a reasonable result. Sheep and lamb prices are at an all time high. Interestingly China who are the largest producers of sheep meat in the world, cannot supply their own domestic market and since 2011 have been increasing their year on year imports of sheep meat with New Zealand’s declining sheep flock, 25% in the past few years, Australia is best positioned to fill this gap. e wool market has also experienced an upward movement though sadly it dipped away before close in July. is rise has cleaned out most of the old wool that had been sitting in stores for some years. We can only hope that this helps to provide a bottom in the market, as predictions are that supply should be tight over the next few months. Over 35 Pastora clients have now completed or are doing the two year Lifetime Ewe Management course, myself included. e feedback I have received from clients has been very positive. If you have not already done the course and are interested please let me know and we will see if we can organise a group in your area I strongly recommend it. e Rams are looking fantastic and I think that they are probably the biggest and heaviest cutting group of Rams that I have presented since taking over the management of the Stud in 2008. Once again they have not been overfed but they received approximately one kilogram of grain per week from January to May, and were on lucerne for most of that time. Now they are on vetch and are steaming ahead. ey have not been fed grain since May. is year we have 700 Rams for sale and all of them are polls. Once again this year we will have some rams available with ASBV’s bred from our AI program. We have commenced pedigree matching our best 600 ewes and from next year we hope to be able to offer a larger number of rams with these figures. We marked the lambs from our AI ewes and another 200 special ewes on the 3rd of August. A total of 470 lambs were marked from 370 ewes. (127%) Hopefully the main lot, which will be marked towards the end of August, can continue with a similar percentage. is year our two-year-old ewes averaged 4.36 kilograms clean fleece weight and their micron was 16.8. See graph 2. is spring we will have large numbers of ex-stud ewes available for sale. is is a great opportunity to access genetics that have been used for ram breeding over the past few years. ey consist of 1000 mixed age ewes and 900 one-year-old ewes if anyone is interested please contact me. If they are not sold before the field day, I will offer them on the day, via helmsman auction. Pastora Newsletter - 1
Transcript
Pastora Newsletter - 1
Poll Merinos
SEPTEMBER 2015
Welcome to our 2015 Newsletter. What a start we’ve had to the season. At the time of writing this, things are looking good in most areas with soil pro�les full and we have a great reserve of moisture to take into the spring. Soil moisture probes around Lockhart are now showing we have more stored moisture than a�er the �oods! Fingers crossed even an average spring should give us a reasonable result.
Sheep and lamb prices are at an all time high. Interestingly China who are the largest producers of sheep meat in the world, cannot supply their own domestic market and since 2011 have been increasing their year on year imports of sheep meat with New Zealand’s declining sheep �ock, 25% in the past few years, Australia is best positioned to �ll this gap.
�e wool market has also experienced an upward movement though sadly it dipped away before close in July. �is rise has cleaned out most of the old wool that had been sitting in stores for some years. We can only hope that this helps to provide a bottom in the market, as predictions are that supply should be tight over the next few months.
Over 35 Pastora clients have now completed or are doing the two year Lifetime Ewe Management course, myself included. �e feedback I have received from clients has been very positive. If you have not already done the course and are interested please let me know and we will see if we can organise a group in your area I strongly recommend it.
�e Rams are looking fantastic and I think that they are probably the biggest and heaviest cutting group of Rams that I have presented since taking over the management of the Stud in 2008. Once again they have not been overfed but they received approximately one kilogram of grain per week from January to May, and were on lucerne for most of that time. Now they are on vetch and are steaming ahead. �ey have not been fed grain since May. �is year we have 700 Rams for sale and all of them are polls.
Once again this year we will have some rams available with ASBV’s bred from our AI program. We have commenced pedigree matching our best 600 ewes and from next year we hope to be able to o�er a larger number of rams with these �gures.
We marked the lambs from our AI ewes and another 200 special ewes on the 3rd of August. A total of 470 lambs were marked from 370 ewes. (127%) Hopefully the main lot, which will be marked towards the end of August, can continue with a similar percentage.
�is year our two-year-old ewes averaged 4.36 kilograms clean �eece weight and their micron was 16.8. See graph 2. �is spring we will have large numbers of ex-stud ewes available for sale. �is is a great opportunity to access genetics that have been used for ram breeding over the past few years. �ey consist of 1000 mixed age ewes and 900 one-year-old ewes if anyone is interested please contact me. If they are not sold before the �eld day, I will o�er them on the day, via helmsman auction.
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Wether Trials�e recent wether trials have proven the consistency of the Pastora bloodline. Only one other stud in Australia has entered as many teams in wether trials as Pastora in the past 10 years. �ese teams have come from clients buying ex-stud rams down to our lowest grade proving the depth of our bloodline.
Peter Westblade Memorial Merino Challenge in the winter drop group of 18 teams when worked out using GrassGro net pro�t per hectare, which is how the trial results are presented, Bronzewing Pastoral Company has placed second with a net pro�t per hectare of $187. G. & C. Bahr have placed third at $177/ha and Kelenlea Partners placed fourth at $176/ha. (See graph below).
In the Autumn group of 14 teams P. & T. Unger are currently second at $168/ha and Wallambee Pastoral are currently sixth at $161/ha.
Ovens Valley Wether Trial �e Bahr family �nished ��h this year in the second shearing with their wethers cutting 9.1kilograms at 17.5 micron, giving them a total �eece value of $80.18. Last year the Bahr’s �nished 1st overall and with their results from both years combine they will be very competitive next year when the trial is �nalised. �ere are 35 teams in the trial.
Bookham Trial We have entered a team from Pastora. It is the �rst time a Pastora team has entered. All the trial results over the years have been from clients. We are currently placed fourth at the end of the �rst shearing with a team of wethers cutting 8.6 kilograms at 17.5 micron. �ere are 29 teams in the trial.
Pastora’s Breeding Objectives
1 -To increase Fleece weight by at least 1 kilogram in the short term whist maintaining �bre diameter
Given our current micron the quickest way to increase overall �eece value is to focus our e�orts on �eece weights. As a comparison, for every $10 you decrease �eece value you need to wean a extra 12 to 15% more lambs from all your breeding ewes to achieve the same gross income. �e goal is to have both �eece value and fertility as high as possible.
2 -To improve growth rates o� the young sheep but maintain adult weight where it is now.
We all want to sell our lambs quickly and have them grow fast but the catch is when you select for growth rate you are inadvertently selecting for a larger adult sheep. A very small percentage of sheep have high growth rates but don’t end up too big, they are the ones we want. Our adult breeding ewes range from 60 to 65 kilograms at score three condition if we had them weighing 70 to 75 then that is 15% more hence you would have to run 15% less as each animal would consume 15% more food to maintain the same condition score. So selecting for growth rate has to be done responsibly or the outcome has a negative a�ect on gross income.
3 -To continue to select for plain bodied highly fertile uncomplicated sheep
Whilst selecting for increased �eece weights it is important to watch fertility and genetic fat as the two are antagonistic with �eece weight. Meaning if you select for �eece weight alone then you are selecting for skinnier less fertile sheep.
Chart 1: Clean Fleece weights from our 2-‐year-‐old ewes.
3.8
3.9
4
4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Clean Fleece Weights
Y-‐Value 1
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
140%
-‐3 -‐2 -‐1 0 1 2 3
Y-‐Value 1
Y-‐Value 2
2015 Fibre Diameter Deviation relative to Clean Fleece Weight – Winter Drop
2015 Fibre Diameter Deviation relative to Clean Fleece Weight – Autumn Drop
Graph 2: clean �eece weights from our 2-year old ewes.
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Date Name No.Sheep Price Sale
Rank
15/5 E.R. Cheers 103 $156 1st
5/6 E.R. Cheers 64 $143 4th
19/6 Wallambee Past Co. 121 $151 1st
19/6 G. & R. Adler 120 $146 4th
26/6 Wallambee P/C 160 $136 2nd
10/7 G. & R. Adler 74 $145.5 1st
Date Name No.Sheep Price Sale
Rank
11/6 Stewart Brothers 482 $134 2nd
Date Name No.Sheep Price Sale
Rank
7/5 Dromgari� P/C. 118 $136 2nd
14/5 E.J. Kitto & Sons 130 $155 1st
14/5 R. Smith 97 $148 3rd
14/5 C. & G. Bahr 180 $140 4th
21/5 E.J. Kitto & Sons 132 $145 2nd
4/6 E.J. Kitto & Sons 104 $152 2nd
4/6 Westhall P/C 146 $136 4th
11/6 Oxenbridge Farming 128 $144 1st
18/6 E.J. Kitto & Sons 202 $156.50 1st
18/6 Kingston Partners 172 $142 4th
�e Peter Westblade ScholarshipCasey Annetts, of Wagga Wagga, and Jayden Harris, Mitchell South Australia, were announced as the winners of the scholarship at the presentation in Wagga Wagga on March 4th. It was the �rst time that two entrants were announced as joint winners.
Casey and Jayden will receive up to $10,000 each of cash and in-kind contributions during the next 12 months.
Casey 22, is studying a Bachelor of Agricultural Business Management at Wagga Wagga. “I will use the scholarship to become an ambassador for the progression of people in the sheep and wool industry to encourage students and youth to gain experience for themselves” she saidJayden, 22, is principal of the Brimanna Poll Merino stud in South Australia, selling around 60 rams a year. He runs 700 ewes and aims to produce dual purpose sheep in the 19-21 micron range. Jayden also works o�-farm for a scanning business, and pregnancy scans more than 75,000 ewes across the Eyre Peninsula each year. He also o�ers micron testing and will soon o�er eye muscle depth scanning.Scholarship information courtesy of Kim Woods from OutCross Media.
2015 rams for sale
Gri�th Saleyard Report Merino Lambs
Wagga Saleyard Report Merino Lambs
Wagga Saleyard Report Old Wethers
Market Report�ese reports are taken from the �e Rural Newspaper. I did not realise the domination that Pastora sheep were having on these sales until I started putting this report together.
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Upcoming Events
Open Day 18th September, 10.00am onwardClients commercial ewes displayedHelmsman auction commencing at 12.30pmPastora Woolshed
Henty Field Day Display22nd, 23rd & 24th SeptemberMerino Stud Breeders TentNext to the eastern entrance
Above: Le� to Right; Owen, Jacinta, Luke, Hayden & Jeremy
South West Slopes Field Day�ursday 3rd Septemberat St Clements Retreat Galong
