Baderloo News - Summer 2024-25

Welcome to our first quarterly newsletter.

Summer was certainly a hot one and it has ended with a sting in its tail it seems with hot weather continuing. As far as work goes, summer is definitely the quietest time of the year for us. Mostly we have been moving sheep around our sparse stubbles, taking lambs to and from agistment and getting everything sorted for mating. We have also begun feeding most of our sheep in our containment yards, unfortunately a lot earlier than normal but the stock are all in fantastic condition, so that is a bonus.

I managed to get away for a couple of weeks to WA which was a much needed break. It was awesome to explore the beautiful coastlines and catch up with friends.

Alison Henderson - Stud Manager Baderloo/Hendowie Poll Merinos

Client Engagement

We would love to extend an invitation to have a discussion with all of our existing Hendowie and Baderloo clients and any potential new clients about your genetic requirements and goals for 2025. We would love to get an understanding of how our genetics fit or could fit, in your business and how we can continue to improve the quality and value of what you receive from us. I would also love to share our own goals and breeding philosophy with you so you can better understand how Baderloo and Hendowie will serve you in the future.

I will be endeavouring to contact clients over the next month, but if you want to get in early or for some reason, I miss you, please use the button below to get in touch and arrange a catch up. Given the tough season, I feel that the earlier we can have these conversations, the better placed we will all be when it comes to ram selling season later this year. Also, it enables us to make informed ram purchasing decisions later this year as we look for stud sires to take our businesses forward.

Summer in pictures

Data, data, data

I have gone through the data for the 2024 drop rams that will be coming up for sale this year and had a look at what proportion of the flock are actually industry leading. I have defined industry leading as the being in the Top 20% for the merino breed as reported on Sheep Genetics. What the results highlight, is that our Hendowie and Baderloo flocks are exceptionally strong in growth and carcase traits and staple length. We definitely have more work to do on fleece weights, but recent stud sire purchases are looking to improve this straight away.

Analyzing the data this way, shows us the depth in our flock and where we can make improvements. As clients, you should have confidence that our flock has a good proportion of industry leading animals for almost every key profit driving trait, meaning that you will find animals that will seriously transform your sheep business at our annual ram sale in August. It also means that we are breeding a very balanced animal that can be truly dual purpose. 

Mating

This year we mated just under 750 ewes in 8 different single sire joinings, including an AI program with 2 sires. The table below shows the different sires used with links to their data on Sheep Genetics:

Hendowie 220176

https://search.sheepgenetics.org.au/search/results?userType=0&db=5&traits=8&searchType=1&flockId=609356&animalId=220176&search=true

Hendowie 230112

https://search.sheepgenetics.org.au/search/results?userType=0&db=5&traits=8&searchType=1&flockId=609356&animalId=230112&search=true

Baderloo 220096

https://search.sheepgenetics.org.au/search/results?userType=0&db=5&traits=8&searchType=1&flockId=601270&animalId=220096&search=true

SWM 220081

https://search.sheepgenetics.org.au/search/results?userType=0&db=5&traits=8&searchType=1&flockId=601645&animalId=220081&search=true

SWM 234304

https://search.sheepgenetics.org.au/search/results?userType=0&db=5&traits=8&searchType=1&flockId=601645&animalId=234304&search=true

Trigger Vale 190760 (AI)

https://search.sheepgenetics.org.au/search/results?userType=0&db=5&traits=8&searchType=1&flockId=609251&animalId=190760&search=true

Ramsgate 230075 (AI)

https://search.sheepgenetics.org.au/search/results?userType=0&db=5&traits=8&searchType=1&flockId=601515&animalId=230075&search=true

Leahcim 202503

https://search.sheepgenetics.org.au/search/results?userType=0&db=5&traits=8&searchType=1&flockId=600815&animalId=202503&search=true

Rices Creek 230956

Upcoming Events

March - classing young sheep and shearing potential sale team rams

April - shearing and pregnancy scanning ewe flock

May - muscle and fat scanning young sheep

June - pre-lambing prep

July - lambing and cataloging rams for sale. Attending Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show, South East Merino Field Days and Mid North Field Day with a team of rams

August - lamb marking and ram sale prep. Ram sale (see below for details)

**Save the Date - New Venue**

2025 Ram Sale

Wednesday 27th August 2025

'Henderson Farm', Caltowie, 1pm