HELLO WINTER ...
Hello everyone and welcome to winter 2019!
We can't believe it's the beginning of June already ... and winter has literally rolled in over night!
Not that we're complaining ... we had such an amazing May ... still very warm and a little bit of rain which meant the grass was still growing and because it was dry we could actually get a lot of things done and setup for when the wet and cold would hit us ... so all in all we just squeezed through the first half of the year on the front foot ... phew!
Hopefully all of you got some rain while it was still warm too and were able to get enough feed ahead of you to get everyone through winter.
2019 the year of the Pig ... symbol of wealth and good fortune ... bring it on we say!
Well the year has certainly started with that theme and it looks like it will carry on like this for sheep farmers ... lamb and ewe prices are consistently high and the US$ is strong ...
We completely sold out of all rams in all categories and breeds for the 18/19 season ... and with some ram orders already in and a lot of new interest for 19/20 season, we expect to be in the same position this year again ...
We're very proud to say that SIMBA, one of our 16 born FE Coop rams (377/16), has topped the autumn SIL ACE across flock list!
In English: SIMBA is #1 ranked ram across all breeds, across all New Zealand for Maternal Worth and Maternal Worth & Meat, he's extremely high on Survival and high on FE (passed at 0.6) ... we're absolutely stoked!
But wait - there's more ...
SIMON, also one of our 16 born FE Coop rams (199/16), features as #3 on the same list ... across all breeds, across all New Zealand for Maternal Worth and Maternal Worth & Meat ... go SIMON!!!
And BOYCE, another one of our FE Coop rams (380/16) features as #28 (Maternal Worth) and #63 (Maternal Worth & Meat, across all breeds, all through NZ) ... woohoo!
Super proud!
But it's not just our own results that get us buzzing ... hearing of the successes, amazing results and accomplishments of our clients are a sheer delight ... these are the real proof of the pudding and the best feedback for our genetics and how they perform!
Here are just a few examples ...
Dan Coleman, Rangiwahia, who's been using our genetics for the last 12 years (Carthew Coop & Lamb Supreme) had a "big problem" ... he had the best lambing with the best survival last year and way more lambs than budgeted! ... and what a great year it was to have this problem with lamb prices high ...
Jeff Burton, Taumarunui, who regularly buys Carthew Coop ewe hoggets off one of our longstanding clients, topped the Te Kuiti ewe fair 2019 with these as 2T's @ $290/head ...
Phil McKinnon, a longstanding Carthew Coop Rom X client from Rangiwahia ... weaned at 168% on steep and cold hill country, especially in a year where survival was really tested ...
A new client in North Canterbury, who's finishing lambs in a big way and been getting our Lamb Supreme genetics for the last two years, was amazed at how well the lambs yielded this year through the January/March period, which historically, is a very difficult time to get good growth and high yields in lambs ... especially off straight pasture ...
And that's why we love what we're doing ... what can be more rewarding than seeing your businesses thrive and being part of your successes!
All animals are looking well ... they have a presence, they're structurally correct, uniform, healthy and happy ... it is a real joy to farm animals like these ...
Alan Sutherland, from Sutherland Contracting, did some digger work on all three lease blocks and was amazed and couldn't believe how well and healthy all our stock look, every single one (his words!) ...
Selecting for structure is really paying off now ... we have no lambing problems (all our sheep lamb totally unshepherded on the hills), minimal deaths after lambing ie no wastage ... this year between tagging at lambing to weaning, all lambs were present bar 6! ...
And of course farming personalised animals, ie naming them, is having a big impact on the day to day farming ... it definitely is more fun ... it feels more inclusive ... more awareness of animals as individuals with names ... and it looks cool too ... we love it and hopefully you too!
WHERE TO FROM HERE
To maintain and keep on improving the structural correctness trend moving forward, we are now closely working together with Guy Martin, South Island, who is looking through, selecting and grading thousands of animals all through New Zealand and Australia .... Guy is going through our rams and ewes alike at different times of the year to grade our flocks and to ensure we're staying on the right track to consistently produce structurally correct, healthy animals ... to get another set of eyes and his vast experience to look through our animals is priceless ... never believe that you know it all and see it all ... hehe
And again this year, we were able to buy 100 Suftex ewe hoggets from Martin Suftex Stud to inject our Suftex Supreme with some top outside genetics which will increase our black face sheep numbers and immediately gives us a structural advantage ... watch this (black face) space!
We're also very excited to have had the opportunity to buy a very good 1/2 Beltex 1/2 Texel ram this year - RANDY - who although smallish in stature, looks impressive ... solid and muscly. He's been out with our B-flock Coop and Coop Rom X ... we want to compare his offspring particularly with our Lamb Supreme offspring especially regarding early growth and see if he could add some value to our terminal genetics ... before we consider introducing outside genetics into our Lamb Supreme! ... we'll keep you posted on progress.
Now into our third year of fully electronically tagging and recording all our sheep, we can definitely reap the benefits of technology ... with all the different flocks and types of sheep, recording everything fully electronically cuts out any confusions and misreadings ... add the very sleek and easy to use Gallagher recording system and very user friendly Zee-tags, we reckon we finally struck the perfect combo and we'll keep on working with these two suppliers for sure.
Getting ram orders in early last year was a big plus for us and hopefully for you too ... just another thing one doesn't have to remember when things start to get real busy again in Spring ... it certainly made our planning ahead so much easier ... ... so if you already know what number of rams you need for this coming season or know your $$ budget, don't wait ... contact us now and secure your order for 2019!
If you're not quite ready yet to order your next ram team ... don't worry ... we want to look after you, our longstanding, valued clients first, before opening up orders to the open market and new clients ...
Pascale will be in touch with you all in July (after our two week holiday in Hawaii ...) to firm up ram orders before we sell out again!
We trust the boys did a great job again for you this year ... wishing you all a kind winter and we'll catch up soon again.
Simon & Pascale
Check us out on Instagram - TUMEKE FARMS - and Facebook - CARTHEW GENETICS - follow and like us ...
We look forward to seeing you there :-)
