WHEN WAMMCO asked its June 2020 Producer of the Month winner Roger Bilney, Kojonup, to nominate the most significant example of technological change in the livestock operation of his family's farming business, he replied "genetics."
A passion for high-performance Poll Dorset genetics, and a proven farm business formula continue to keep Walkaway breeder Randal Levett in the WA Meat Marketing Co-operative winners’ circle.
STUDS have been carefully selecting genetics based on visual assessment and Australian Sheep Breeding Values for many years, but the Poll Dorset breed is taking the next step, by analysing on-farm and carcase performance to help producers make more informed breeding decisions. Twelve Poll Dorset studs from across the country are testing their genetics in the Bowan Park progeny trial, run by NSW stud Ridgehaven.
Galong graziers Hugh and Fran Flanery are primed to continue producing the highest quality first-cross Poll Dorset lambs they can.
Ian McCall President NZ Poll Dorset Breed Committee. Greetings to you all, from Poll Dorset NZ. As part of our breeder’s annual levies the NZ breed committee decided to give each flock, your Poll Dorset Magazine. We thank you for the opportunity to contribute to it as well.
Flock 320 Faraday Park is celebrating 60 years of operation in 2020 and the Tasmanian stud is going from strength to strength.
Courtesy of APDA Sponsor Zoetis Dr Matthew Playford from Dawbuts, Australia’s leading veterinary parasitology laboratory in Camden NSW, has been involved in developing the ground-breaking website, SheepTRAX (sheeptrax.com.au) in conjunction with Zoetis.
The remainder of September is likely to be warmer than average across most of Australia, with roughly equal chances of warmer or cooler days and nights on parts of the south coast, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
The oldest Poll Dorset stud still operating in Victoria will offer ewes for the first time in its 65 year history.
The SmartShepherd system has been used by one Poll Dorset breeder this year to increase accuracy and decrease workload of collecting dam pedigree.
The Australasian Dorset Championships have embraced a new format this year, with lots to be offered solely online via AuctionsPlus.
Producers often correlate lambing ease directly with ram genetics, and while selecting the right sire is always important, there are a other key factors at play.
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Neogen Australasia’s Territory Manager for South Australia and Western Australia, Dan Roe, said genomic technology may have once been daunting for breeders and complicated to adopt, but for those new to genomics the current range of sheep DNA tests were simple to use and the results easy to interpret.
Where fat is laid down in the live animal, either within the muscle (intramuscular fat) or around it (subcutaneous fat), plays vastly different roles when it comes to eating quality and carcase yield.
YASS sheep producer Frank Kaveney describes using Poll Dorset sires in his Merino operation as both “complementary” and good for “cash flow”.
HIGH scanning rates are a great measure of potential, according to Bayer Grow’s Rick White. But managing nutrition through pregnancy to marking is the indicator of the amount of potential you are utilising on-farm.
THE Poll Dorset breed’s unofficial Tasmanian reporter-on-the-ground Frank Badcock is modest about his sheep breeding success. But anyone in the business will know running a successful stud for 50 years is about as successful as it gets.
Courtesy Tom Rookyard, AuctionsPlus 2020 has been unlike any year in living memory. After 2019 which saw growers faced with floods and bushfires at the bookends of the year respectively; and was the warmest and driest year on record.
WHILE the future impacts of the current Covid-19 pandemic on all agriculture commodities is still unknown, sheep and lamb prices have started the year off historically strong.
The Bowan Park Research Flock delivered its first season of results to ram contributors in 2019. The trial, following lambs from conception to kill floor, has provided extensive data for the breed, and the rams for season two of the trial have now been selected.
Courtesy of Sheep Genetics Australia The Australian sheep breeding value Lambplan index Carcase Plus has been an important index for the sheepmeat industry but it has been found to have a negative impact on eating quality. Because of this and the industry’s focus on delivering high eating quality outcomes for consumers, the index will be retired in March 2020.
Tattykeel stud at Oberon has won the inaugural WFI Champion of Champions Poll Dorset ram competition at the Australasian Dorset Championships in Bendigo.
Laurie Thompson has been inspecting Poll Dorsets at the Melbourne Royal for 49 years - “hopefully I wrack up 50 in 2020 and it might be time to retire”.
EWES that were scanned in lamb and didn’t deliver a live one could have the campylobacter bacteria. Coopers Animal Health’s Jane Morrison says it is one of the three big causes of sheep abortion in Australia.
LOCMARIA Farms via Hynam sits on the South Australian and Victorian divide, with property on both sides of the border. It doesn’t however sit on the fence when it comes to selecting the best performing terminal sires, picking Poll Dorsets every time.
BEN Shanks has been feeding his 4000 First-Cross ewes for the best part of three years, but is defying the dry with strong results - on-farm and in the saleyard.
WALLACE Binnie has been breeding Poll Dorset for 50 years, but he’s far from old-school when it comes to his stud. Starting with 40 ewes to breed rams for his family’s farm, Wallace soon “caught the bug for the stud job” as he puts it.
Poll Dorsets have long been a passion for the Douglas family, with Max Kenneth Douglas, 77, a third generation studmaster of Dorset sheep.
The renowned fast-growth of Poll Dorset crosses allow Ben and Narelle Robilliard to achieve a fast turnover for prime lambs in the New South Wales Riverina.
Consistency of performance is crucial for sheep producer Brad Smith and it’s what makes him a staunch advocate for the use of Poll Dorset rams.