The year that was…

With some of the driest conditions on record over the last 12 months we have all been through some one of the most challenging circumstances of our current life times. With that said, we have also seen some of the highest prices for sheep and wool with many records eclipsed. If we can take any positives out of the last 12 months, it is that these prices have softened the blow and provided us with some experience to manage drier conditions into the future.

With some areas still suffering the dry conditions, we are very fortunate to have received 120mm since the start of May. We managed to sow most of our feed dry in April and it is really getting away. We now have all our stock out of containment and grazing in pastures. This is the first time we have had to containment feed our entire flock, costing us over $1200/day, but with minimal dry feed on our grazing land we were left with no other option. We now have all lambing ewes on pastures as lambing started on 31st May.

On-Property Auction - 13th August 2019

We are excited to progress the Baderloo stud this year with our first On-Property Auction on 13th August.

An open inspection day will also be held on Monday 5th August to give you a chance to select rams prior to the auction.

We believe adopting an Auction approach to sales will free up a lot more time for us to put back into making our rams the best they can be. It will give buyers, new and existing, the same opportunity to purchase the exact rams they desire and we hope that everyone feels comfortable with the transition.

We are still here to help with selection and any other needs you may have throughout the year and we pride ourselves with providing our clients with the highest level of support.

Pasture Workshop - 8th July 2019

Combined with Cox Rural Jamestown, we will be hosting a pasture workshop on Monday, July 8th. This will include discussions around introducing new species, pasture blends, soil health and a tour around Baderloo to see what pastures and mixture of species we are growing, a look at the disc seeder and how we are working to improve soil health. Having the disc seeder has allowed us to have our feed down dry in April and we now have a large amount of quality and varied feed on offer.

Auctions Plus sale for
Baderloo clients

This year we are proud to offer our clients the option to sell excess sheep through a feature Baderloo sale on Auctions Plus. This will give you a larger buyer audience with the opportunity for buyers to purchase larger lines in the one sale. With Baderloo blood sheep already attracting premium prices we believe this will be a great opportunity for you to get the price you deserve for the extra effort you put into breeding quality sheep.

A new look for Baderloo

Our old website was no longer meeting our needs and we thought it was also a great opportunity to freshen up our logo. We now have a new logo and website allowing us to better showcase our stock and our breeding program. Check it out and let us know what you think!

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to stay up to date with what is going on throughout the year.

AI Success

This year we were going to give AI a miss but after selling one of our top sires (150171) to Mumblebone Merinos for $12,500 we decided to use him by AI for over 110 ewes.

This sire has performed exceptionally well with tested progeny in 3 flocks and has been used in another 3 flocks this year. This ram shows all the characteristics of a real Dual Purpose Merino.

150171 has been entered in the Balmoral Sire Evaluation Trial this year and we look forward to seeing how he measures up. We will also look to nominate a sire for the South Australian Sire Evaluation Trial later this year.

After identifying a few rams of exceptional quality we have sold semen to WA, NSW and SA, with strong interest further afield in New Zealand and Argentina. We hope to get our genetics sent around the globe.

It’s exciting to see this part of our program expanding and is also giving us very good linkage to make our breeding values more accurate. It has been very pleasing to see our sires data increasing as a result of good performance and linkage. We look forward to working with these breeders and to follow up on the progress of their AI programs.

A Sad Farewell

As most of you are likely aware, the passing of Dr Jim Watts in late January was a very sad day for the merino industry. Australia has lost a passionate and innovative scientist, educator and sheep, angora goat and alpaca breeder.

Jim’s dedication to breeding a highly fertile, non-mulesed Merino of outstanding staple length and wool quality has created a highly profitable, low maintenance Merino for the future.

The skills and knowledge that Jim instilled in us has resulted in our flock excelling for all profit drivers at incredible speed. It’s exciting think where we will be in the coming years.
 

The Future of SRS Merino

Following Jim’s passing, Mel, the kids and I made the trip to Dubbo for an initial focus meeting with the SRS group to set the foundations of how we move forward together as a united group.

This was also a fantastic opportunity to hook on the van and explore this wonderful country we live in. Our 4500 km route took us via Melbourne, Gippsland and the NSW South Coast over 10 ten days. It was a lot of driving but very rewarding, with lots of fun activities with the kids along the way.

The success of the meeting is attributed to the commitment of a composed and collected group of breeders with a clear vision of what is needed to drive the SRS Merino forward. After attending the meeting, I am pleased to reside on two committee’s - Research & Development and The Young Sire Program. There are some amazing developments underway in these areas with some big benefits that are exclusive to the SRS Group and its clients, I’m excited to help drive this and provide the benefits to our clients.