Byaduk, western Victoria, Lincoln breeder Ian Christie has one phrase, which sums up why he keeps running and showing the sheep.
“You get a lot of fun out of it,” Mr Christie said.
“You can show a lot of the junior wool handlers and breeders, coming through, what the old breeds were like.”
You can show a lot of the junior wool handlers and breeders, coming through, what the old breeds were like.
- Ian Christie, Lincoln breeder, Byaduk.
Ian, and wife Rae, run Garvald stud, named after a town, south east of Edinburgh, Scotland.
“Lincoln one of the popular breeds back in the early 1900’s - there were some 600 studs in Australia, they were very popular for their wool, then,” Mr Christie said.
“It was exported back to England, but since that time wool has tended to go to the finer, softer wools and the coarser wools have dropped out of favour.
Up until the 1980’s, the main use for the strong wool was for roller lapping, in the scours.
That has since been replaced by synthetics, but there is still a market for the 42-45 micron wool.
“It’s fairly strong, it’s not something you would want next to your skin,” Mr Christie said.
“We sell the fleece to a private buyer in Hamilton, he can get between $4, down to $1.50 to $1.80, at different times and depending on demand.”
Ewes would cut six to seven kilograms of wool, while rams produced between 10-12kg.
Mr Christie said he took over at Garvald in 1977, and was now running a flock of 50 ewes.
“We are limited in what we can do, because there are only 10 or 12 registered studs, in Australia. The flip side of it is our Australian Lincolns have got quite a broad lock, up to three or four inches wide, and the New Zealand and English Lincolns have a narrower lock .
“From our point of view, we don’t want to go too far, that way. We prefer to keep this broader lock in our sheep, so we just have to be a bit careful, if we try to introduce bloodlines from overseas.”
