September saw our On-Property Auction with the sale of our relaunched Poll Merinos, especially given the market. The results were Avg. $1033, selling to a top of $1200. We also had a display of sheep at the Yorke Peninsula Field Days, enabling the opportunity to catch up with other producers and to see in body the …
We decided the lotting order of our sale rams and began preparation of the catalogue. In doing this we took into consideration body weights, body type and conformation, structural soundness, and fleece traits among other things. This is the first look at our re-launched Poll Merinos.
We finished planting all our winter crops except for a late paddock of barley. Visual scores and measurements were recorded for some groups of young sheep. These scores help build up our data and are evident as Australian Sheep Breeding Values. Whilst not compulsory in the Dohne breed, we have chosen to provide additional information …
Good rains continued, and seeding was fitted in around trafficability in paddocks. We are blessed by the good rains in early 2023. We marked our stud lambs, recording breech scores. After ten years of experience with electronic ID tags in our stud sheep, and with compulsory eID coming soon, we have chosen to fit individual …
Early drop lambing finished with most ewes grazing on good growth of grass in paddocks. It is a pleasure to see how well lambs grow with adequate feed supply. Sale rams are looking spectacular and have been running on a bean stubble at times. There will be some rams available this September from re-registered Poll …
Our family strongly supported the South Australian Sheep Expo held at Wayville Showgrounds in Adelaide. We provided four animals for participants to care for and display as they learned many aspects of sheep breeding, showing and nutrition as well as skills like shearing for the older groups. This event showcases many of the different breeds …
This time of the year is busy with taking observations and measurements. We measured and recorded staple length, face cover, dust penetration, fleecerot, wool character and wool colour of the whole Autumn 2022 drop. Whilst this takes time, we get a good chance to have a close look at each individual and get a feel …
February saw us finish our grain harvest, somewhat later than other years. This then freed up stubbles for different mobs of sheep. We had our flocks scanned for pregnancy, and then arranged backup matings. We began making and recording Fleece Observations of our Autumn 2022 drop ewes, as well as Fat and Muscle Scanning of …
