SOUTHDOWNS are the ideal terminal sire, according to Nedelle Southdowns stud principal Ned Nagorcka.
Mr Nagorcka said he started his stud business after finding it hard to source Southdown rams.
“We’ve always used Southdowns as terminal sire, and we found that everyone was fighting to secure Southdown rams,” Mr Nagorcka said.
“They were getting harder and harder to find, so I thought, I’ll start my own stud up just for ourselves, and it’s just grown, demand has been incredible.”
He said prior to this, he had been breeding superfine Saxon Merino sheep.
“They just weren’t profitable at the time, so we decided to go into the prime lamb market,” he said.
“We now run 1200 composite ewes in commercial form, and 350 stud Southdown ewes, on about 240 hectares of land on two properties in Hawkesdale and Minhamite.”
He said they’ve become one of the largest Southdown studs in the country, which he credits to growing interest in the breed.
“They’re just so easy to run, they’re easy to lamb, have good growth rates, and you’ve got a bigger window for selling because their skins are really tight,” he said.
“You’ve got the ability to put Southdowns over any age group, whether it be ewe lambs, maiden ewes, or older age groups, and you can also put them over any breed of sheep and still be confident that you’re going to get an even run of lambs,” he said.
He said they sell privately throughout the year, and have sold out of rams every year since the stud was established in 2005.
“We sold 160 rams privately last year, and could have sold a whole lot more,” he said.
He said clients are returning because of continued success.
“I recently had a client, Camp Creek, top the market in Hamilton, reaching a record price of $236 for lambs that agents were estimating at 38 kilograms carcase weight,” he said.
“I also had another client who sold a second run of lambs a fortnight ago, over the hooks, they were his second run and they yielded at 51 per cent.”
He said for the last couple of years he has been performance recording the flock through LambPlan, and believes this will help with genetic improvement.
“We’re always trying to improve genetics, we do a lot of artificial insemination (AI) ever year, sourcing genetics from Australian and overseas studs, including Willowhaugh and Waidale, who are both from New Zealand,” he said.
“There were fewer options in Victoria, there weren’t many about, so to allow for genetic diversity, we travelled out and bought genetics via AI and physical rams.
“They’ve had a really good imprint on the farm.”
Mr Nagorcka said given the recent positive season, he’s anticipating a good year.
“It’s been a really good season, and there’s just seemed to be a lot more feed,” he said.
“Ewes are in incredible condition because we’ve had plenty of feed.”
They began joining at the start of March, to lamb in August.
“We’ve fluctuated that a little bit, but that has seemed to work the best,” he said.
“You can run more ewes and when you’ve got ewes that have multiple births, they’ve got the feed there in front of them when they need it.”
He said participating in Stock & Land Sheep Week would help promote the breed as well as the stud.
“I just thought that the stud’s growing all the time, and you find that a lot of people don’t actually know about us,” he said.
“I just thought it would be a good opportunity to get out there and promote the breed as well as the stud, because I think Southdowns are really coming into their own now.”