2008 Newsletter
What a year! Some years I really struggle to get underway with our annual ram newsletter and this is one of them!
2007/2008 rates right up there as the hardest year we’ve experienced on all fronts here at Turnberry. Like a lot of others, it’s been extremely stressful knowingly underfeeding animals in an endeavour to make it through this year. Rightly or wrongly we decided not to significantly de-stock (with the exception of some cows off grazing) and to tough it out.
Once again I’ve been amazed and very proud of the resilience of our sheep to perform and survive in a pretty adverse environment this year. We have pushed our sheep harder than anyone else I’ve seen. Not a point to be proud of some may argue – but a belief we know, if sheep perform in our environment under our management systems – they’ll perform anywhere!
Our management practices changed a fair bit this year as the season unfolded:
- no nitrogen was used due to cost and covers being too short and unresponsive
- ewe mating was split: 1000 commercial ewes mated 2 weeks early - 2500 recorded & lighter ewes mated 2 weeks later (1st October) – ewe hoggets weren’t mated.
All ewes mated for only 25 days (no cover rams even with the single sire mated recorded ewes)
- instead of one big mob, ewes were split into 3 smaller mobs on quick rotations (pick and a promise!)
- no mid winter shearing (however, we did a late pre-lamb shear on some)
- fully scanned and foetal aged all ewes
Our scanning results were
- 164% early commercial ewes (3.05 lbs per kg ewe LW)
- 158% late commercial ewes (3.00 lbs per kg ewe LW)
- 172% rec 2T ewes (3.75 lbs per kg ewe LW)
- 184% re MA (3.6 lbs per kg ewe LW)
Lambing results are
- still to early to say but with the woolly commercial ewes, they were totally left alone throughout lambing. I’ve seen one dead ewe in total and it looks extremely good out there.
Our later ewes are into lambing now and with good feed in front of them are rocketing away.
Looking ahead, the stars seem to be lining up for sheep farming. We’ve heard this before of course, but I think, there is a real belief it is going to happen this time (weather permitting).
What happened with a lot of composite genetics not performing this year was no surprise to us.
The last 10 years have seen a real focus on “breed genes” and “genetics” have taken a back seat. Most animals perform okay in a good environment/season. It’s when the going gets tough that it counts!
We’re continuing to put a lot more selection pressure on the health and structural carcass traits moving forward. The heritability of these are quite high, so progress can be quite rapid. Also had Ian Walsh, “Falkirk” group assess and handle our whole Coopworth flock this year. Ian covers NZ muscle scanning and flock assessing for structural soundness – so very experienced with a good practical eye for stock appraisal.
Turnberry Australia
Pascale and I have decided to call it a day with our Australian operation and really let someone else take it to a new level. This has been an extremely difficult decision as we’ve put a huge amount of passion, time and finance into this project. We’ve had some wonderful achievements, significant challenges and most importantly got to meet lots of great Aussie farmers.
Dad in particular has cherished his involvement, it offered him a new challenge. However, Dad is 73 now and Pascale and I want to simplify our life a bit and focus on our children now (10,9 and nearly 8 – so pretty full on!), hence the decision.
It has been quite a journey for us, with that in mind I’d like to share some of the most memorable experiences with you:
· 2002 April
Dad, with power of attorney, signed up for the farm, bought a cellphone, ute and motorbike all in one day (I was told he spent more time sussing out the telephone than anything else!). He moved into the homestead that night with no power and only managed to get it on after 7 days because he stressed he was a pensioner.
· 2002 May
Pascale and I arrived with 3 young kids and a tin full of special embryos ex NZ to implant into our new Aussie ewes. The start of Carthew Genetics Australia.
2002 June
Had an absolute circus when 500 Angus cows with newborn Waggu calves at foot arrived for grazing. The Japanese owners/staff had stuffed up the trucks and sent the wrong calves with the cows – as you could imagine absolute bedlam as these cows went searching across fences, rivers, highways and down the road for their calves.
I think they visited every neighbours garden along the way really endearing us Kiwis to our new Aussie neighbours. Funny enough, after 3 months I just couldn’t get them off the farm as the owners wouldn’t take delivery of them. Hence my first contact with the local shire “pound man” after I had no option but to turn them onto the road. Funny now, wasn’t really at the time!
· 2003
Sold our first Carthew Genetics ram hoggets, which was pretty cool to think these were conceived on the hills in NZ and then grown on the flats in Australia.
· 2004
Was a busy year generating significantly more embryos to come over to Aussie. Also our first year with fresh embryos using ewes from the first frozen consignment in 2002 – exciting!
· 2005
Our team hosted and ran (I was sick back in NZ with the flu and our eldest had just broken his arm) our first Australian workshop.
What I hear made this truly memorable was we also had a busload of our Kiwi clients seeing Australian farming first hand. The interaction that evolved was great, with some real friendships established.
Also got swiped in the Australian Coopworth Society newsletter with a rather incorrect article questioning our genetics. Competition is healthy, and I guess that was what was behind it. Although we breed sheep , we don’t want to follow like one, if we don’t believe its in the best interests of our clients moving forward. So that was interesting.
· 2006
Rightly or wrongly we decided to corporatise our Australian business. I was getting a bit stretched and wanted to focus more on genetics, raise more capital so we could step up a gear.
In September I chaperoned 600 in lamb Coopworth and Lamb Supreme capital stock ewe hoggets over to Australia by air. Biggest consignment into Aus by air I understand, logistically a huge undertaking. They left NZ 6pm Friday and arrived on Turnberry Australia 9pm Saturday. They arrived obviously in the dark, Dad had a race setup on the road so we could unload them straight into a paddock opposite the house. Hard case – the next morning at dawn I went out to check on them and here they were, the whole 600 in this 100 acre paddock all tightly parked up on the only hill in the paddock - the dam wall! You could just read their minds – all this flat land, where the hell are we? They started lambing one month later, coinciding with the onset of the worst drought in 100 years – so they say.
· 2007
Obviously ours (like a lot of others) business plan went out the window and survival mode kicked in. The decision was made to exit Aussie in May that year by all the shareholders so we took the opportunity to buy back the business and we were able to lease the farm back. A pretty stressful and frustrating year but amazed at the resilience of our sheep and the farmers.
· 2008
Has been business as usual but trying to do things better. We de-stocked and sold all our commercial sheep to make room for a cropping program (like everyone else ). So far so good.
We had a real scare with our Australian managers wife Judy suffering a stroke weeks ago. She’s amazingly lucky still to be here, but another reminder of living the “now” and how precious life is!
Turnberry New Zealand
Ram selling is fast approaching so a quick return of ram orders would be much appreciated. Obviously our sales were back last year with clients de-stocking and making do with older rams.
Obviously for us to remain at the cutting edge of sheep genetics we need to keep our investment into the genetics business as high as possible. We fully understand the financial position most sheep farmers are in and everybody is hunkering down.
However, if you could help us with any referrals of possible new clients it would be much appreciated and help us to help you stay ahead.
On a final note, we also had a great thrill with Dad being awarded the Queen Service Medal (QSM) for services to sheep breeding and community. Furthermore, elected Patron of the NZ Coopworth Sheep Society, following the death of Professor Coop earlier this year.
We really hope this finds you all in fine fettle and great health.
The grass is growing and lambing has gone well.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Kindest Regards
Simon, Pascale, Bill & Di Carthew
