GREG Foat recognises the importance of viewing Merino rams at shows and pre-sale days as an integral part of his Merino production.
He has included the Australian Sheep & Wool Show into that philosophy, as an opportunity to see rams from across the nation in one place at one time.
And it has paid off, with his visit to Bendigo last year to buy a ram from one stud seeing him switch to another stud's rams on show.
The three-generation Foat family enterprise at Woodside runs a 10,000 to 12,000-head commercial Merino flock on 1012 hectares.
The family runs 4500 ewes in mobs of 500, which means lambing down 4500 lambs for adult ewes, while they aim for an 80 per cent average out of the maidens.
They also lamb first-cross Merino-Black Suffolk lambs out of 800 ewes.
The Merino rams, at a rate of 1.5-2 per 100 ewes, spend three weeks with the mobs, then are followed by the Black Suffolk rams.
"This gives us a 70-80pc conception rate out of the Merino rams," Mr Foat said.
Ewes are culled at five-years-old and wethers are culled annually along with the first-cross lambs which are grown out to 18-25 kilograms and sold over the hooks directly to an abattoir.
In 1998, Mr Foat won Gippsland Flock of the Year with a traditional Merino flock, but decided "I didn't want to be breeding horny little sheep in my 60s and we had the 2010 deadline with the mulesing".
From 2000, he began focussing on breeding a plain bodied, polled Merino; destocking his original enterprise and actively seeking genetics from Gippsland, South West Victoria and South Australia.
"I was looking to plain the body up and poll the sheep," he said.
Buying mobs of weaner ewes from Western District studs, Mr Foat originally joined them to Gracemere rams to build carcase size and fleece bulk in the progeny.
Carcase size increased but as the micron crept up to 19 and with his focus on Merinos, after the third mating, he started to cast his eyes elsewhere for his desired traits.
He has always entered his flocks in wether production trials to compare it against the progeny of others in Gippsland and to distinguish ram performance.
He also visits the farms that participate in the Gippsland ram sales.
"You've got to be out there showing your sheep and measuring them against others; and to see what is available and what might suit you," Mr Foat said.
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Taking into account these factors led him initially to Pendarra, Bindawarra (under Murray Toland) and breeding his own rams.
He then introduced a Gunallo ram from Pinnaroo, South Australia, after four years' planning to make the trip.
"The first ram I was after when I got there, I didn't get – he went for a bit more than I wanted to pay," Mr Foat said.
"But I got this other one – my second choice.
"I wasn't going to go home without one, not after planning the trip for so long."
Then he purchased a Toland Poll Merino ram from Phil Toland, Violet Town.
Last year Mr Foat went to Bendigo intending to look at Mount Yulong poll rams, but a Panorama poll ram caught his eye instead.
His preference is for Bindawarra poll rams to ensure production of 18.5M fleeces in the flock, Mr Foat said.
"Bindawarra principal Steve Harrison has put a lot of effort into breeding poll genetics and he produces what I like."
"There's consistency in growth and performance across the rams, which leads to consistency in the progeny out in the paddock.
"Using these genetics has allowed me to focus on producing hybrid vigour.
"It's what I enjoy and at the end of the day, you've got to enjoy what you're doing."
