Issue 3
April 2001
GRACEFIELD NEWSLETTER
Hello to you all and hope this finds you all fit, well and good spirits. Even though the season in Western Australia has been tough, the positives for sheep meats and live export has never looked more promising. Sheep supply is very tight and markets are very stimulated and it’s not going to change overnight.
Much has happened since our last newsletter and I will address some points of interest.
We were lucky enough to have 3 prominent South African breeders in Clinton Collett and his wife, Dora, Jon Greylings and Kris de Wet visit. They shared some good points with breeders present and were happy with the way the breed was progressing in Australia.
Winton Daley, John Booker and Dr David Cottle flew in from New Zealand to have a look at us. Of the 24 sheep purchased to start the New Zealand flock, 11 ewes and 2 rams were purchased from Gracefield. We wish them all the best in their efforts with SAMMs in New Zealand.
It was very good to see fellow breeder, Grant Picker from Bigga SAMM Stud, NSW. He along with Steve Gough, Belmore and Bevan Jolly, Elders Stud Stock Dubbo. These fellows have had a good look at SAMMs both in South Africa and Australia and speak highly of the breed. Hope the Gracefield genetics purchased by both Grant and Steve help further their stud development.
Welcome to new SAMM breeders in
Ron & Ruth McPherson, Junee NSW
Peter Jensen & Family, Urella, Pingarring WA
Hayden Edwards & Family, Dumbleyung, WA
All have purchased Gracefield genetics.
What we’ve achieved this year at Gracefield
The few rams we had to sell went very quickly after the Field Day. The best part of all was all the people
that purchased SAMMs off us last year all came back and bought more.
It has been obvious to us that since using SAMMs over our merino flock, our lambing percentages have increased. Last year we joined 1700 merino ewes to SAMMs which resulted in 110% lambing. Our position was further verified by a good client in William Ball who achieved similar results. In a particularly bad lambing year, all we can put it down to is the survival rate of the lambs.
Embryo Transfer programme for the year went extremely well with both frozen and fresh averaging 80%. All these will lamb end of April and a comparison of newly imported genetics alongside sheep we already have will be interesting. Fingers crossed! We thank Craig and Liz and the Genstock Staff for their good work.
Acceptance of the breed by industry has been very good. Mt Barker interbreeds this year saw us win the Ewe Class and runner up in the Ram Class. Woolarama saw us mentioned in the top five in the Ram Class.
The tireless Rob Davidson, is continuing on with is independant breed analysis and we include his good work on the fact sheet.
Welcome also to Michelle Mayers, Agriculture WA, Katanning, on her good work at Mt Barker and Denmark.
CSIRO has tested one bale of rams wool at Michell’s Australia Laboratory, Salisbury in South Australia. The result was within normal range for merino wool.
That’s about all, but I would like to leave you with a few of my own thoughts. The wool industry is trying hard but faces an uphill battle with maybe the exception being fine wools. Waiting for a market to run out of a product so the price increases is not a sustainable marketing initiative. Sheep numbers are low worldwide and now diseases are threatening parts of Europe, Persian Gulf and South Africa. Meat in all other countries of the world is primary, fibre secondary.
Perhaps there are other ways to maximise bottom line profitability for sheep. We all realise that there is a need for them on the farm. Maybe SAMMs are the answer, only time will tell.
Gracefield SAMM
PO Box 726
Katanning WA 6317
Phone: 08 9821 2181 Fax: 08 9821 4240
Secure Contact Form
Content Management Script (CMS) by Katanning Web Services