A “massive, thumping ram” at the Australian Sheep & Wool Show (ASWS), Bendigo, set Shelbourne wool and meat producer Kieran Flood on the path to turning out big framed, early maturing animals.
The ram was from Norm Weir’s Kerrilyn stud, Dunluce, which is also in the Bendigo area. It marked a move away from the Wood Park genetics, which Kieran, and wife Terrie, The Springs, had previously used on the 425 hectare property.
“At the Sheep & Wool Show Norm just had this massive, thumping ram - his wool wasn’t the best but I wanted to increase the size of my ewes,” Mr Flood said. “Strangely enough, as that ram got older, his wool got better and Norm’s sheep seemed to suit this area.”
“Our objective is to produce as much good wool as possible on a big framed maturing sheep,” Mr Flood said.
At the Sheep & Wool Show Norm just had this massive, thumping ram - his wool wasn’t the best, but I wanted to increase the size of my ewes
- Kieran Flood, Shelbourne
“We select rams with white, soft handling, bold crimping and free growing wool on a big framed loose skinned sheep. We tend to select rams on tip end, for gross fleece weight.”
The flock produced between 19-20 micron wool, cutting at least six kilograms a head. “A free combing, modern Merino I call them – they haven’t got as much wrinkle as the old Merinos but they are not as plain as some. It’s just that I like stylish, soft handling wool.
“I don’t like colour. I also try to have big framed sheep, so you can cash in on the mutton market.”
The property was running about 1600 ewes and 380 ewe weaners, mostly for wool. “I think there is more profit in Merinos, you can breed the replacements yourself,” he said. “If you want first cross ewes, you have to buy ‘em in and put up with prices you currently have to pay.”
Half the flock was joined to Merinos, a quarter to Border Leicesters and the other quarter to White Suffolks. “The culls get joined to the Borders and White Suffolks.” The Springs was also running a feedlot, to supply the meat market.
“In previous years, it’s been the lambs that have carried us through,” he said. Recently he said he had been joining ewe lambs at 10 months of age to White Suffolks, to get “more cash flow.”
Other animals were bought in, at around 16-18kilograms, for the feedlot, and then turned off for the supermarket trade at 24kg.
Shearing took place on The Springs in April, just before lambing, in May. Mr Flood said that resulted in the ewes holding their condition better, as it took more energy to maintain a full fleece, than it did to rear a lamb.
Ewes were joined at a rate of one ram to 100, at the end of November for the Merinos, while two White Suffolk rams were used, for every 100, in March, for an August drop. The Springs marked over 100 per cent.
Up to 25 per cent of sheep were culled, “we cull the smaller ones, the ones, which are ‘off-type’ in the wool or have too much skin and won’t give the staple length. If they scan dry the first time, I put a second ear tag in them and if they do it again, they are gone. I don’t care if they are big sheep with 10kg of wool on them, if they don’t rear a lamb, they are gone.
Pastures included a mixture of clover, phalaris and ryegrass, while hay was grown to supplementary feed the ewes, close to lambing.
Mr Flood said he had tried lucerne – “it’s a bit hit and miss, in a couple of wet years it drowned.”
Mr Flood said he hoped wool prices would stay at a reasonable level, for some years. “People who are getting back into sheep seem to want to go into crossbreds, not Merinos.
“Maybe it’s because of the headlines of lambs making $250 - people don’t see the other side of it.”
He said the future for the Merino looked bright, particularly for dual purpose animals.
