Love is in the air...and putting money in the bank!
NEWSLETTER - WINTER 2016
This Issue:
Love + Awards + Profits
Simon says - Breeding tips
Why you could share the word
LOVE + AWARDS + PROFITS
We have been "breeding with gratitude" for some years now and have seen that reflected in our sheep's performance, lambing and survival rates ...etc.
Now it's official ... it's also reflected in the taste of beef...NZ Farmer May 23rd:
Brendon and Hayley Robinson won the Grand Title at the Steak of Origin competition.The Hawera couples Angus-cross sirloin steak was deemed to be the most tender and tasty in the country by a line up of New Zealand top chefs at last weeks final taste test.
"I have absolutely no idea how we made it to the semi final let alone to the grand final and then winning our section and then the whole thing.But I'll make no secret of the fact that our animals are happy, well fed and the biggest thing is lots of Love. I talk to them all the time when I feed them. I love my animals. When we send them off to the processor I even leak a few tears."
To further drive this home we took some photos at the meat selection area in the trendy Ponsonby Central, Auckland ...
The Happy Meat movement is INTERNATIONAL.
Waiters at resturants in Europe tell the story of their meats origins... like they used to tell you about the menu.
In NZ we forget that sheep and beef farmed on real grass is unique ...
The meat scene is best compared with the chicken and egg farming business ... cage free sheep and beef, free to roam on grass ...
We'll be off to Europe in July to investigate this further in relationship to our sheep ... we'll chat more on our return!
SIMON SAYS - BREEDING TIPS
Good breeding can not be done at home!
As I typed this, part of me shuddered. I imagined waves of challenge washing towards me from every sheep farmer in the country. However, as I am feeling both brave and passionate, I will explain why I say this.
It's not all about skill, knowledge, experience ... it's also about the available gene pool.
With the current trends towards more x-breeds the available gene pool becomes even more critical.
So here is the first installment of "Simon says" on cross breeding.
“Generally speaking, everyone is trying to breed their own mix, their perfect sheep - people are looking a bit for the silver bullet I guess but how to maximise genetic progress with this mix is the question.
If you haven’t got the numbers/gene pool to measure and keep making progress ...you end up not making any progress at all. People will argue that you’ll get the hybrid vigour effect, thinking that it is all positive ... but of course like with everything you also pick up the negatives. So often they can even themselves out. So with every cross breeding you have to be quite clear and clever how you move forward with your genetic progress and that’s where a lot of them fall down.
For example you identified that you like the first cross (50/50) ... how do you maintain that? Out of your own flock? Where do you make progress? You start getting inbreeding as your selection criteria is minimal, so your progress will be very insignificant ...
We saw that first hand with our East Friesian (EF) many years ago ... the 1/4 EF - 3/4 Coop cross is a really nice cross and was very well suited for our high performance system and could have been “perfect” but we couldn’t go anywhere to maintain that cross, no one had a gene pool big enough to get into. So even if all the Coopworth and East Friesian breeders would get together say and create this cross, the gene pool would still be too small to really make genetic progress.
Hence our Coop Romney cross is ok as the Romney is huge gene pool in NZ ... our 50/50 Coop/Rom X is a beautiful cross and works well and has all the traits we’re after. We are using our best home bred sires within that 50/50 and we’re also getting the best of 100% Romney (from the huge NZ gene pool) to then create another 50/50 line, crossed over some of our Coopworths and anything that measures up within our selection criteria we’ll keep sons of and they will come into our breeding program.
It is essential to have a huge gene pool and records from our NZ environment ... so you’re breeding from proven genetics.
Although there’s no official criteria to be “proven”, it takes about 7 generations to get some meaningful info and records on a breed in your environment (ie they might do well in Germany but how do they perform in NZ!)”
As he paused to draw a breath ... golly this guy is passionate about all things breeding! ... I slipped in a couple of semi-intelligent questions to start him off again! ...
So why is there so much confusion about which cross or which sheep is best out there? Why are people doing their own thing? Are we bored with what we've got? Or is what we've got not working?
Do farmers think they know better and do their own thing, not quite understanding the ins and outs? Or is it all just sleek marketing?
“I don’t know the answer exactly ... but say one farmer sees another farmer getting quite good results with a cross breed and gets some those animals for himself, it doesn’t mean that he automatically gets the same great results as the other guy did ..
Why?
Because his feeding regime and animal management might be quite different ... and/or his farm is a lot better (easier, more fertile etc.)
One of the other big things is also that when high, medium and low index sheep were trialed on an average feeding regime, it was found that the low index animals outperformed the high index animals! This means that unless you’re feeding these genetically superior (high index) animals well, they can’t express themselves and perform!So it doesn’t mean that a high index animal automatically performs better!
It all comes back to selecting animals out of an environment that is similar or harder than yours, otherwise the wheels will fall off ...
So best genetics records are not necessarily the best match for everywhere ... and that is where the structural soundness comes into play as well ... no matter how good the records, the animals need to be structurally sound to perform and adapt in any conditions!
Generally the harder they’re bred the better they’ll perform in any environment ...
If you want to be a leader breeder you got to educate your clients about when and how to feed animals (timing) ... the “ad lib” feeding regime doesn’t fit our hill country pasture growth curve in most cases ...”
There you have it ...
Simon says - Breeding tips
WHY YOU COULD SHARE THE WORD
Simon was chatting with some clients the other day and I heard the word family several times. This started a "kaboom" in my mind! I had never really put it into words but that is how we farm:
Our sheep are our family
Our clients are our family
Our farm supports our family
Our business is based on family values
Duh! I had never really put that together so simply. It now makes sense when on the occasional times a client reduced their order or changed to another breeder, I felt so devastated. It was like a family member was struggling and needed our help, or in the case of trying another breeder, like losing a family member ...
So why could you spread the good word?
Because we are part of your family and you are part of ours. We are good people, we know our stuff, we supply great stud animals at great prices and we need your help.
To develop our business and to bring our dreams into reality we need increase our stud client base by 20%.
What can we offer you in return for your help? ... everything we're already doing for you now!
What can you and us offer a friend, neighbor, family member?
We can offer them the chance to join our extended family, to get access to Simons knowledge and advice and to share in the collective experience we are all having, with life and with great sheep.
Tell us about your business and we would like share it through this newsletter and add to our family members knowing and helping each other more.
FE Carthew Coopworth Hogget mating ...
...the "younger set"
Carthew Suffolk Supreme
... the pretty ones
Carthew Coopworth hogget mating ...
...the biggest part of our sheep family
East Fresian Ram team
... the family milking sheep
Carthew Coopworth Romney
X Ewe Hogget mating ...
...the "perfect 50/50" mix
Carthew Landcorp
Lamb Supreme Hogget mating
...Our terminal sheep breeders
Unfortunately our children are not willing to pose for a photo as easily as our sheep do so no new photos here.
We wish you all a kind winter and we'll catch up soon again.
Simon & Pascale
PS: Check out our facebook page (Carthew Genetics) and like us!
