2013 newsletter
SPOT THE EWE? COOPWORTH EWE WITH TRIPLETS – DEC 2012
Hello there…
We thought it was about time we brought you up todate with the latest shift in farming since the rotary milker changed the dairy industry…
And all the other exciting things here at Carthew Genetics…..
You are probably aware of the movement promoted strongly through Britain and Europe a couple of years ago called Food Miles…
Driven by the enviromental movement and seen as a tool to promote “local” produce the cost in miles of getting food onto the supermarket shelf was calculated and labelled alongside the product…The impact was noticable with NZ losing penetration into some markets.
Now we have another opportunity to embrace….Happy Meat…
Currently gathering strong momentum is a movement to promote, educate and purchase Happy Meat.
Restaurants throughout Europe are now advertising on their menu’s the origin of the meat, even down to where & what town (or country) it came from.
More interesting is that consumers wanted to know if the meat was “happy” meat! The waiters knew about farming practices for each category of meat and those farmed on green pastures was top of the list for the “happiness” factor.
After chatting with some of the customers, it seemed 90% out of the time they would deliberately order the “happy meat” and pay a premiun for it!
“It makes us feel better to know that the meat we’re eating comes from an animal that had a happy life, more often than not, the meat tastes better and is certainly easier to digest!”
Consumers are prepared to spend more on superior products that meet animal welfare and best farming practice standards.
This is so exciting for us…not only the marketing opportunities…but the whole focus. Over the last 2 years we at Carthew Genetics have been focusing on changing our energy and approach to our stock and our farming operation overall.
We have always breed for natural resilience and we believe in building the Core Presence of an animal, rather than relying on drugs and doping.
We believe it’s our duty to care for and maintain the delicate balance of nature, nurture and commercialism for the wellbeing of our animals and the enviroment generally.
We all know that happiness is contagious and that production and results flow better..
It’s a win-win …… the animals are happy and so are we!
The sheep world has seen some fantastic gains in the last 20 years.
However, with this progress, we’ve also seen a dramatic increase in structurally poor sheep.
Sheep with no constitution, guts or any real core! We see a lot of sheep out there that don’t look very “happy”.
You know the one’s – heads down in the yards, not standing proud - their core essence just isn’t present.
This has to change moving forward.
Optimal production not maximum production
More balance - more profit
With that in mind, we have been focusing on the basics really.
STRUCTURAL SOUNDNESS, PERFORMANCE AND TOUGHNESS
Core Presence and Structural Soundness / Constitution
Over the last 5 years we’ve put a lot of selection focus on structural soundness.
We’ve been working closely together with Ian Walsh, Falkirk, whose ability to literally “undress sheep” and view every animal in their naked structural “being-ness” has enabled us to dramatically improve our sheep phenotypically, by eliminating “devils claw” in shoulders, weak backs and “pinched” hind quarters, just to name a few.
We haven’t got conclusive/objective data yet though our gut feeling is the overall gains have been huge.
The sheep really do have Core Presence!
Performance – Facts & Figures
We have introduced some Romney bloodlines into our mix over the last few years resulting in a new ½ Romney ½ Coop cross. Likewise, we’ve infused a bit of Romney blood into our Coopworth flock (up to 25% is possible whilst maintaining the Coopworth classification).
It’s still early days but we’ve been rapt with both decisions..the indicative results are exciting.
Our early Coopworth ewes scanned 214% (3.5%/kg ewe liveweight) – Coopworth and Coop/Romney X 2T ewes 202% and Coopworth and Coop/Romney X hoggets 135%.
So in a drought year, we are very happy indeed!...naturally time will tell with the weaning.
Overall growth rate and meat yield continue to be pursued vigorously. Our ram lambs are eye muscles scanned every year. This measurement is then integrated into our SIL Index.
It’s highly heritable so progress can be fast.
Rapid progress of Carthew Coopworth (flock 689) in other main areas of focus -Survivability, Lamb Growth, Reproduction and Wormfec & Production – shown on SIL Genetic Trends Graphs.
COOPWORTH EWE HOGGETS – JULY 2012
Tough…for when the country needs tough!
Global warming, weather extremes, increase prevalence of dairy & dairy support, cropping, environmental regulations and land use restrictions, consumer driven organic & bio dynamic preferences, corporate farming & amalgamations – all mean sheep flocks are being positioned more and more into the harder hill country.
Bigger flock size means more competition, stress and potential animal health issues.
So breeding sheep that perform & shift in tough environments is paramount. We believe, only structurally sound, medium framed, “happy” sheep will survive in the sheep flocks of the future.
“Less is more” sums it up…only those with Core Presence will have the internal resource to flourish.
What are we doing going forward…
As 80% of the genetic progress comes from the ram, we focus on identifying superior animals that happily excel in true commercial hill country conditions…true Core Presence.
Ewe Hoggets: There is a potential 15% gain to be made through selection for early maturity and fertility. Early Hogget mating is the next significant gain to be made through reducing generation interval thus maximising genetic progress .
The ability of our sheep to perform, even in less than favourable conditions, is our core point of difference…It is what we focus on and excell at incorporating in our breeding programs.
Our other exciting development areas are:
Parasite resistance/resilience: Over the last 20 years we have firmly been in the worm resilience camp i.e. not drenching our sheep and constantly making them perform in an undesirable, highly contaminated environment.
A few years ago we started to use Wormfec again, believing we can now incorporate both resistance and resilience functions to breed better, tougher sheep that contaminate less in future. It’s estimated 20% of the population do 80% of the contaminating.
So our aim is to identify the 20% and by removing them we will reduce contamination dramatically. The spin off is less exposure to worms and more production with less chemicals, again supporting our Happy Sheep program.
Facial Eczema: we’re setting up a FE subgroup within our Coopworth flock.
The first two years we have used top Coop FE sires, all tested as better than 0.6mg/kg liveweight, over older, high index Coop ewes.
The resulting progeny are coming through the system now, so watch this space!
We wish you all a very successful and happy season and look forward to catching up with you again soon.
Happy sheep, Happy farmers, and Happy profits…
Simon, Pascale and team
