Season
It’s been a pretty tough summer for most of us on the east coast. We were restricted to around 50% irrigation for most of the season and stopped altogether in early march. Which may sound pathetic, but the problem is when you rely on irrigation, you don’t have 20 tonne of silage in a pit in case you have a drought, nor do you sow green feed crops in the spring as you pay a lot for water and are geared to grow grass all through the summer, so not having water made life very difficult and more so when you don’t have any animals you can get rid of (because my whole operation is essentially all stud sheep there really is no excess stock I can get rid of when dry).
Like most of us, I suspect, my income was back massively
this last year, primarily from having to kill lambs at much lighter weights and
selling the majority as stores. In fact
I was down to winter stock numbers in early march. So income dramatically down and expenditure considerably
up (yes dairy farmers sheep farmers also had another tough year, not our first
in the last 10 years). I fed sheep nuts
to the ewes for the first time this year to ensure I had them at good weights
for mating. My winter crops were/are
probably only around 60% yield of what I normally expect to have, which meant off
farm grazing for ewe hoggets again this winter.
It’s been hard, but fortunately, the winter while bloody cold, has been
kind, in that there has been little wastage of feed owing to a dry winter. The lack of rain is going to be an issue,
although getting a bit recently.
However I am the first to acknowledge while it’s been a challenge this
last summer and winter, I know it’s a picnic compared to what farmers are
facing in North Canterbury and can only hope that there will be some relief
this spring for all of us. We at least
got some rain early enough in the autumn to get some grass and crops growing
(with some urea) before winter came.
Ironically my hoggets went in to the winter as good as
they have ever done. I took the second
weight of my lambs early (lw6 weight), not much more than 6 weeks after weaning
so I could cull them and get rid of the culls.
Note you need to wait at least 6 weeks until after weaning your lambs to
weigh them again to ensure that both sire and dam have an equal genetic influence
(i.e. 50/50), if you do it earlier than 6 weeks after weaning, the dam’s
milking ability is the predominant factor affecting weight and distorts growth
bvs. Thanks to some irrigation
(50%) I managed to keep grass in front
of those I retained, fully expecting them to be going backwards from mid-march
onwards; but I took a punt and applied 50kg urea on the whole farm in mid-march
when there was no rain, and then got some rain days later with some follow up
showers, which resulted in me having grass in front of my lambs all through Autumn. I actually could stop supplementing my ewes
when mating started.
Our scanning was not brilliant this year, about on par
with last year, to be expected with the dry I guess (although my ewes were in
pretty good order when they went to the ram and a few guys told me as I had fed
sheep nuts to my ewes that I would have a great scanning, so I was hoping for a
super scan!!!). Hopefully, the Romneys will still wean close to 160 because as
I have said before lower scans seem to be offset by lower losses (within reason
of course and unusual climatic events). Lamb
survivability in the modern Romney is a strength it has over pretty much any
other breed these days. I have heard
scientists say that we need to be working on reducing the difference between
scanning and weaning as high losses is something that greenies might start
highlighting in the future, so apart from the immediate economic loss to us as
farmers, this could be an issue for the marketing of our product in the future.
The most significant change this last year, is my
living arrangements. Since Mid-April of this year I have been alternating
between living one week in Christchurch and one week back down at the
farm. I have done this so as I can
share care of my daughter while she finishes high school in Christchurch. Not the most opportune time for this to
happen, but something that I felt I had to do for my daughter’s sake, hopefully
I am making a difference? As a result I
have employed Jake Gollan on a part time basis, who lives on the farm with his
partner Rawinia. I still run the whole
operation but Jake is obviously responsible for carrying out the day to day jobs
that need to be done when I am not there.
My contact details are still the same as I have an internet phone which
enables me to have the same number 036148388 where ever I am. Obviously this arrangement is somewhat taxing
financially, so all of you who prefer to
give rather than receive, please feel free to pay twice as much for your rams
this year (from me of course), the sentiment will be greatly appreciated!!! Employing Jake has freed me up a bit and
taken away the one man band reason I haven’t been able to visit a lot of you in
the last coupler years and to be fair I have already visited a number of
clients and certainly hope to see a lot more before my sale. I would add that where I live in Christchurch,
8 Everest Street, Burnside is only about 5 minutes’ drive from the airport, so
if you need a bunk for the night don’t hesitate to ask.
Our Seventh on Farm Sale will be at 3pm on Wednesday 25 November 2015 this year
It’s hard to believe; seventh on farm sale. A helmsman sale which I anticipate will again
be run in conjunction with AGonline. Videos
of all rams and performance data will be loaded on the internet around 3 weeks
before the sale, so for those of you who come to the sale you can sort through
them to a smaller number that might interest you on the day (quite a few
clients are doing this now) and of course for those of you who can’t make the
sale, you can still sort out, select and buy good rams without attending the
sale. Note you can bid on them from the
time they are loaded, leave auto bids etc. if you want, with the auction
finishing on the day of the sale, you can actually bid in real time against
those bidding on the day of the sale (because it’s a helmsman sale not your
traditional auction).
I have had the odd debate about whether you can select
rams based on a 20 second video (with rival breeders primarily I might add) and
my answer if you are stockman you can, you may have to repeat the video a few times
to check everything, but you can see pasterns, shoulders, hindquarter, colour, how
it walks etc. It’s a bit harder with Romneys,
but again I do ensure we open the wool on each ram at the beginning of the
video so you are not taking a total pot shot on wool either. I give you a weight at the time of
cataloguing to give you a guide to assess size. To know more about how the
helmsman sale works in conjunction with Agonline, you are more than welcome to
call me or take a look at my website: www.waidalerams.co.nz.
Please note that if you haven’t seen my sheep before and you can’t make
it on sale day, then come and have a look at my hoggets prior to the sale at
your convenience and if they are of the type etc that you want, then I
guarantee that you will be able to confidently select the rams you like based
solely on the videos and performance data loaded on the internet.
This year I probably will have a few more rams for
sale as I doubt I will take Romneys to the Fielding Ram Fair unless they drastically
change the marketing of the sale and perhaps the type of sale, as it’s just
slowly getting worse every year with less people attending, it’s getting to the
point where it would be a poor turnout for a grey power meeting. I have been supporting it out of principle
and loyalty as I think it’s bloody stupid that if you want an exceptional ram
that you have to visit every stud, you should be able to go to one sale and see
them all, but there comes a time (which I think is now) where it just makes so
much more sense to have my top rams in my own sale. Accordingly I may put up 175 rams, comprising
of approximately 80 plus Romneys, 40 Southdowns, 45 South Suffolk and 10
Lincolns.
I think this year will be the first time since having
an on farm sale that I can honestly say that all breeds will be the best line
up that I have ever put up. I obviously
only put up what I think are good rams, but previously there has always been
one breed where I think I have put up a better line up before. The Romneys I am proud to say are again bloody
good, they are more consistent blockier type, not lighter in weight, but
generally a thicker deeper type of sheep.
The blackies are basically by two sires; an expensive south Suffolk I
bought coupler years ago and little brick Suffolk (also two years ago) who has
bred really well; they are deep thick meaty rams, not massive but still
weighing. The Southdowns’ are particular
pleasing, I think best line up for a few years, very consistent and good type,
all of them are by ram lambs I used. On
top of that the Lincolns, while only 10 of them, are very good, ideal for
crossing over merinos to produce a half bred or indeed as a few are doing now,
crossing a merino back over the half bred then using the best progeny
extensively over their merinos.
Some significant sires of sale rams this year:
16-11
56-11
872-13 
1130-11
1130-11
These are just few of the sires obviously; go to my
website, click Stud ram sires and 2014 for respective breeds and you can see
pictures and videos of the majority of the sires. I would point out that 984-12 above is a
total outcross that I bought for 4000 from a flock that ranks highly on SILACE (and
particularly for survivability). I was a
bit dubious as to how he would breed as he was the only good sheep I saw there
(including his keepers, I wouldn’t have used any of them), but he has bred
well: thick grunty rams with very good SIL figures across the board, the biggest
portion of Romney rams for sale are by him.
222 is my keeper, used as a lamb, the breeder of his sire advised me
last year that he has the myomax gene in his background, which means that at
some stage way back a breeder either mistakenly or intentionally used a
Texel. I am not that bothered as its
well back and further the horse has well and truly bolted, it won’t be long
before it’s essentially through all Romney flocks. 222 is helluva grunty ram, with spring, depth
etc; there will be some good rams by him in the sale. Note also 785-13 is Southdown
ram lamb I used, who bred particularly well, to see what he looks like you will
have to go to the website.
On Line Sale: Our Helmsman sale will be run in conjunction
with Agonline for the sixth straight year.
Already mentioned this above. Not
hundreds of others rushing to follow me doing this, primarily because there is a lot of work to do it and secondly you
need to make sure your animals are ready for sale at the time of taking the
video (in my case around the end of October) because if they are not it doesn’t
matter how fancy the technology you use is, if your animals look shit on the
video, who will be interested in buying them? I was asked for my thoughts on a bull
sale, that was copying what I do a coupler years ago: firstly they used photos
not videos, which I don’t advocate, a photo can make the animal appear better
or worse than what they are, a video doesn’t, but their major issue was their
bulls weren’t ready to be sold, at least at the time of taking the photos, as
they looked bloody awful.[so1] Again on sale day there will be a
television in the corner of the woolshed whereby you can ask to view the video
of the ram you may be interested in to get a better idea as to how he may
move.
The Christchurch
Ram Fair which I normally take 2 to 4 four Southdowns is on Friday 27 November
2015, just two days after my on farm sale.
These rams will be on display at my on farm sale. They will also be loaded on Agonline.co.nz,
so you can bid on them with the highest bid before the sale being the reserve
at the sale, no one has done this to date, but it’s an easy way to buy a good piggy
for perhaps $1200. I support this sale
for the same reasons as I was supporting the Fielding Romney Ram Fair. I pushed for the sale being shifted earlier
so that a commercial farmer could buy a bloody good ram, but if they do miss
out they can still go and buy good rams privately, whereas in January if you
miss out, it’s a lot more difficult as they most likely have already been
sold. However the problem for me with this
sale is that I am not what I facetiously call a “hobby ram breeder”, all my ram lambs of all breeds run in one big
mob until culling in February, then in one mob until the beginning of June,
when they go on breaks. I don’t and won’t
feed grain to them, those on breaks get a bit of baleage and that’s it. When
the sale was in January my rams would be more or less as heavy and big as my
competitors, but in November, the last two years, they have been 10 to 15 kgs
behind, which to be frank, it doesn’t really matter how good your rams are if
they are that far behind you are not going to have a good sale. So this year my top five piggies have been
living on their own since beginning of June in what I call my hobby ram breeder
paddock, still no hard feed, but just a very small mob to see if I can compete
size wise with my competitors, we will see, they were around 90 kgs late July,
so my hobby paddock might be working.
Visiting Clients: As I
have someone working on the farm part time, I have already been to some clients
(not as many as I would have liked) but I do expect to get to see a lot more
before the sale. As I just turn up, if
you don’t want to see me and then you see my heavily sign written truck coming
up your drive, you had better hide quickly!
Amazing new developments in Waidale’s breeding program!!!! Nothing new to advise here, at Waidale I Still:
· don’t drench the adult ewes (those that don’t handle it are culled, our pragmatic worm resistance program), we are slowly reaping the rewards from this policy: and
· practice an extended drench program of 6 to 8 weeks on our lambs (except for those we cull and kill); and
· cull all year around for conformation constitution etc, all good breeders should be doing this; and
· only use sires that look as they should and have good SIL figures: a good ram with poor figures will not be used and similarly a poor ram with great figures will also not be used. Too many breeders use poor rams with great figures, not at Waidale! and
· practice the dying art of stockmanship which ensures our flock is of a consistent type that reflects the type of sheep I want to breed, i.e. good on feet legs, good jaw, good eyes, good colour, good length, good width, good depth, good hind quarters etc. (All these things affect the future productivity of your flock, if you don’t maintain it, in the short term not a significant impact, but long term major impact). You do this for long enough your phenotype will reflect the genotype, which greatly increases the likelihood that a ram you like the look of will actually pass on the production traits you see in that ram; and
· have all flocks (except the Lincolns) SIL recorded; and
· footrot and cold tolerance profile sires to ensure I am not using a dud ram (some people wrongly slag this footrot test, it does not mean you won’t get footrot, but I know from my experience with the Lincolns that it has merit, straight Whydid Lincolns rarely profile anything but the highest i.e. 1.1 and they are very rarely lame. We are also are on a farm that would have more footrot challenge than most, and accordingly we have been culling all the time for years on this. You need a footrot challenge to ensure you are breeding sheep that have some resistance to it; and
· eye muscle scan all rams I keep through the winter; and
· collect viascan data on all culled lambs killed; and
· cull all Romney ewes that have two singles in a row; and
· mate our ewe hoggets for 18 days only; and
· tag all lambs at birth to ensure accurate pedigrees which in turn promotes greater accuracy in SIL figures; and
· wean in excess of 150% with the Romneys, more like 160 these days, almost irrespective of what they scan; and
· have an honest upfront attitude. I pride myself on my directness and my honesty; and
· have an extensive website www.waidalerams.co.nz, which details all of the above and more; it’s worth a look.
Beef and Lamb Genetics Form
in Napier
I attended this in the last week of July. It was interesting. I think a lot of what they are doing is of
value, so long as it’s tempered with some good stockmanship. I do think it’s better to have this entity
than not and as such I would encourage everyone to vote for its continuance. You may have seen the recent feature on me in
the New Zealand Farmer, the Press (it must have been a slow news’ week as it
apparently was everywhere) but my main message was clearly the importance of
stockmanship.
Some significant issues that came out of the forum:
Adult weight index, DPA
There was massive debate at this forum about weighing adult sheep to get a breeding value, and the importance of condition scoring ewes at the time of weighing. Condition scoring is required to differentiate between for an example a skinny slab sided composite ewe of 65kg (note I am taking the piss here, apparently there is the odd skinny slab sided Romney ewe around as well) and a fat grunty meaty Romney ewe of 65kg, one you want and of course one you don’t. The problem I have with such a breeding value is that I consider it largely redundant for a good stockman as I can look at a sheep and tell you if it’s going to leave big slab sided mongrels or little wee buggers etc. My eye is as accurate if not more so and probably more importantly my eye is more timely as even if you collate all such data it’s only when you have an adult progeny on the ground of the sire ram that you can have confidence in the breeding values.
Zoetis
Zoetis were there trying to peddle the sheep 5k, and
shepherd plus etc. The technology is in
theory good, but economically it just doesn’t stack up. It costs me about 750 dollars to tag and
record my lambs (ignoring labour), but if I DNA tested my ewes, my sires,
electronically tagged my progeny and of course DNA tested my lambs, I worked
out I would have a bill of around 59000 (admittedly about 23000 would be one
off as once ewes done once) but still a helluva cost as you can see.
Zoetis also used an example of testing a 120 rams, of
which the top 20, after being sheep 5k tested, changed significantly and they said
based on this example there was a gain of $40000, I think, in production. But this is crap as I am sure that at least
half of those top 20, if not more, would quite simply not be good enough to use
in my flock as they would have faults that I wouldn’t bring into my flock. The reality at home is I might have 5 or 6
ram lambs I think are good enough to use (that’s all) in the stud. Again as I said last year I see the benefit
of sheep 5k (apart from marketing which is how most use it) is to test the few
I want to use to make sure there isn’t something that is bad, for example one
has piss poor fertility, then I wouldn’t use the ram, but the problem is still
the time it takes to get results. It is
still around 6 weeks which is quite simply too slow to be of any value as I
have a window of about 2 weeks max between selection and mating: to select the lambs
you want to use in January would mean I am often not using the best lambs. They assured me they are working on reducing
the turnaround time.
We continue to provide samples of all Romney
sires to Agresearch which means that we will be well connected when I
eventually do use sheep 5K to get genomic breeding values (the connectivity
improves accuracy). There is one breeder
I know of who uses every DNA test under the sun but if it wasn’t for all his
other off farm businesses, his sheep farm would in my view go broke, and
breeding good rams requires much more than DNA testing to breed good sheep (Yes
stockmanship!!!!). However if there is a
philanthropist out there (or collectively a group) who would like to donate say
$70000 a year to my stud operation to utilise all the science, then I am more
than happy to accept it!
SIL meat index DPM
Again this index is still a waste of time, unless you
are killing around 15 to 20 cull lambs of all sires you use through Alliance and
getting the individual viascan results being fed into SIL. Firstly very few do this, with droughts last
year, I didn’t even bother doing it.
Secondly as I learnt last year no across flock reports at present
incorporate this data, as there is so little of it and SIL software doesn’t presently
have the capability to do it in SILACE run.
Accordingly this index is very reliant on an eye muscle scan which is
only an indication of eye muscle not the meat yield of the whole sheep and if
no eye muscle reading, it extrapolates and predicts based on weaning weights
etc, accordingly it becomes so bloody unreliable as to whether a high DPM means
meat or not, that it’s a joke.
Heterosis (Hybrid vigour)
They intend to make SILACE the sole across flock
report, which will incorporate viascan data in the future and they are going to
eliminate those effects that are attributable to hybrid vigour as opposed to
superior genetics, which it does not at present. Any composite or cross bred in SILACE is
unfairly advantaged over a purebred as there a significant productivity gains
that are solely due to Hybrid Vigour.
This adjustment is very important as they propose that the only across
flock report in the future will be a SILACE across all breeds, cross breeds etc.
At present you can get across flock reports within breeds, but they intend to
do away with this.Condition Scoring
Trevor cook gave a demonstration and talk on this. I always cull gutless and skinny ewes, but mostly on eye. I haven’t handled all ewes to condition score them on a scale of 1 to 5, but after listening to this I think it’s probably one of the most practical and easy gains we can make in lambing percentage, by simply ensuring all ewes are a condition score of 3 or more. I can’t remember the exact percentage gain, but it’s significant. There is a ewe Body Condition Scoring handbook on beef and lamb website that sets it all out. It’s certainly something I will put more focus on.
Meat Industry: Nothing
much is happening, although I am looking forward to these special shareholders
meeting of Alliance and Silver Fern Farms to discuss the merits or otherwise of
a merger, which hopefully will provide us with the transparency that I have
been banging on about for a while. I
heard Keith Cooper recently, now he has stepped down, and the thing that
resonated most with me is if you adhere to the cooperative model and all the
principles associated with it (which arguably aren’t adhered to at the moment),
then it simply doesn’t make any sense to have two cooperatives as logically one
should achieve the same for all its shareholders.
I intend to put myself up as a candidate for the one
of the upcoming vacancies on the Alliance Board this year. I have in the past considered doing this but
wasn’t sure I would have the time to do it (being a one man band with the farm)
but ironically now owing to my change in living circumstances and that I have
now quit the Romney Council, I do have the time to do this. I would like to think that someone like me
can add value as I am passionate sheep breeder, I am well educated, (practised
as a lawyer for 6 years, not sure if this is positive or not, depend on who you
are I guess) but I think my strongest attribute is my ability to digest what I
am being told quickly and then not being afraid to question the rationale
behind it to ensure what is being done is the right thing (Those of you who
know me would appreciate I have an opinion on most things and fairly direct in
putting across if need be). I am
certainly not doing this as a career move, if I don’t think I am doing any
good, I would quit. I do think that if
I got elected (which is the biggest hurdle in my plan) that I stand for fairness
and equity to all shareholders of a cooperative (i.e. no preferential groups) and
obviously transparency as to why things are done. I am not putting myself forward as pro or
anti merger, but I am someone with an open mind who considers it important that
shareholders are kept informed of what are the obstacles to a merger or why it
doesn’t make sense to or what needs to happen for a merger or something else to
occur. I feel this lack of accountability and
transparency is one of the reasons why no progress is made as we feel there is
always some hidden agenda behind what we are being told.
Wool: Wool levy failed last year, but I still make money out of growing good
quality wool off my Romneys irrespective of that levy, so if you are not then I
am afraid you certainly haven’t got the right sheep. Unless you are not shearing at all, then why
not grow a good dual purpose sheep that produces meat and decent nett cheque
for wool after shearing. The falling
exchange will hopefully help our cause further.
I have heard that Landcorp have negotiated a deal with
the Merino Company whereby they getting something like a 25 cent premium for
their crossbred wool. I don’t know this
for a fact but a wool broker has confirmed that they do have some deal like
this. Firstly this sort of deal offends
my sense of fairness and equity: how can a company provide a premium to one
major player for a product that I can assure you that won’t be any better than
others who supply them. To do this they
are either making a loss on the Landcorp wool or more likely they are
underpaying their other suppliers, i.e. one supplier is subsidising the
other. If I sold my wool to the Merino Company
and found this out, I would tell them to stick their company where the sun
don’t shine.
Incidentally a wool broker has also told me that while
they do get a premium, the premium is well and truly offset by the marketing
charges they require you to pay, so giveth with one hand but taketh away with
the other, if this is correct then perhaps they are not actually better off.
Some say why don’t we get together and do the
same. It almost sounds like forming a
cooperative doesn’t it. Firstly, I think
it’s wrong to pay a premium for a product that is no different to another. There needs to be something you are paying
for, a genuine quality differential or some back story perhaps that allows you
to get more money for the product.
Secondly I am not an advocate of the “if you can’t beat them join them”
attitude, I would sooner campaign against the unjustness and discourage farmers
from supplying the company in question.
Thirdly it’s a lot harder to get many different farmers to come together
and supply an entity than for one entity like Landcorp to issue a directive to
be complied with as unfortunately there will always be farmers who waiver or
back out or don’t supply what is requested etc: accordingly it’s not as easy as
it sounds to do.
Sorting up ewes so only the
best are being bred for replacements.
Apart from buying bloody good rams off me for a
fortune, this is one of the quickest and most cost effective ways of improving
the quality of your flock. Basically
you need to work out how many ewes you need to put to a Romney (or whatever
breed is your capital flock) to give you the required number of ewe lambs you
need to go back into the flock as replacements (allowing for a reasonable
culling percentage say 50%), the rest you simply put to a terminal sire so
there is no chance of keeping ewe lambs out of those inferior ewes. I assure you that doing this for a few years
will reap dividends as the quickest way to improve overall production is
getting rid of the rubbish.
You simply need to go through your ewes prior to
mating to sort them into the two mobs. If
you are in a cross breeding regime such as Romdales, then this is also the time
to sort those ewes that look more like a Romney and put a Perendale across them
and those that look like a Perendale and put a Romney across them, (you get all
the hybrid vigour this way, not the watered down version of a Romdale, plus you
can source true genetics in terms of breeding values not figures that may have
been distorted by hybrid vigour). Personally I doubt there is a Coopdale, Perendale
or Composite flock that wouldn’t benefit from at least one cross of a good Romney
every few years (if not more often).
For clients who buy all their rams off me I am more
than happy to come and assist you to do this, we just need to organise a time
well in advance so that I can indeed do it.
For non-clients I am more than happy to do it, subject to time
constraints, but I would expect to be remunerated for my time. Please note I am not saying you need me to do
it, I am just offering my services if you want. If you wanted you could take it further and
select an elite mob of ewes, paying top dollar for a few good rams (preferably
from me) to improve your flock. Note I won’t be culling your ewes and rams and
then picking rams for you from some breeder who is actually paying that person
commission for selling his rams (this does happen)!!
Stockmanship Video
For a few years now this has been a goal of mine to
create a generic video (i.e. not breed specific) from start (jaw undershot and
overshot etc) right through to back pasterns and tail settings etc and
obviously explaining why it’s important.
I feel that it would be about two hours in length, but could be
compartmentalised into say 15 minute segments (so people don’t fall asleep,
like you are now perhaps doing just reading about it), with differing
commentary perhaps for the age groups it’s being played to (for example high
school kids through to university students).
I believe practical workshops could be run in conjunction with use of
this as a teaching video. On top of this
simple academic tests could be created and given after the showing of such a
video.
I think the key to doing this properly is to actually
have a sheep that shows how an animal should look like and a sheep that shows
how it should not look like. In other
words you need a sheep that has for example, good teeth; is not overshot or
undershot or light jawed etc, but similarly you need a sheep that demonstrates
each of these faults as well so someone can actually see what this looks like
and not simply rely on some commentary to understand it.
If this is done properly, it’s something that can be
of value for many years to come and something that could be incorporated into
high school Ag programmes and more importantly incorporated as part of the
syllabus of all Ag based commerce and/or science degrees. By its inclusion in such degrees I believe
not only will it be an aid in teaching people about how an animal should look,
but it will reinforce the importance of stockmanship in being a good sheep
farmer. I would argue now that as
stockmanship is not part of such degrees many graduates come out who don’t know
and more importantly don’t think stockmanship is important, being part of the
degree would give it credibility.
I have had a various communications with Scott
Champion the CEO of Beef and Lamb who is essentially behind it, but at the
moment its quite circular as to how much it will cost to do (which is difficult
to work out when hasn’t been done before).
I believe there will be a lot of filming by the time you go through
finding sheep with good traits but more importantly good examples of the bad
traits. It’s this point that brings me
to seek assistance: firstly I believe we need a big mob of ewe hoggets (ideally
thousands) which have had little culling as lambs, so as we can go through them
to find good examples of all faults, so if anyone would like to volunteer their
flock for this or knows someone who may be able to help, I would greatly
appreciate the assistance. Secondly I
believe this is a resource that will be around for a long time, so there is a
real opportunity for one off naming rights for an entity that is prepared to
put the money up to do it. Accordingly
if you know anyone who may be interested in such an opportunity I would greatly
appreciate being put in contact with the appropriate person.
Stock Companies Commission
This is something that is starting to bug a few of
us. I pay 9% commission for my ram sale
and I know one of the reasons you pay commission is certainty of payment so I
am not the one out of pocket if someone doesn’t pay, but I do think that 9%
these days is too bloody high. I have a
very good local agent who does a lot in terms of organising sale etc and I am
very grateful for that as without him the sale wouldn’t happen. However I do the rest, catalogue,
newsletters, mailing, preparation for the sale.
We normally divide up my database of farmers with the
idea that lists are giving to local stock agents to ring the farmers in their
area and simply ask if they would like a lift to my sale (I don’t want a hard
sell at all, just an offer to be picked up, taken to sale and returned), you
obviously could have a few beers in the knowledge you weren’t driving. A mate of mine told me at last year’s sale as
all the agents were coming in, “they should have car pooled” as all arriving in
own car with no one in it.
What I would like to find out if I am living in a
dream world or not as I think the majority of farmers, with a bit of notice
would gratefully accept such an offer. I
personally don’t think many agents are making such an offer as requested. Accordingly I would appreciate it if you could
take the time to send me an email to ike@waidalerams.co.nz to say whether you would accept such an
offer or not from your agent. You can
ring me if you prefer. Please be
reassured that this is not smart arse marketing gimmick, I really want to know
because if it’s as I think, then I will be having a very pointed discussion
about what I expect for the commission I am paying. I know it’s not like bulls
where the money is significantly higher, but surely it’s all part of the
service an agent provides to get your lambs, steers etc.
Even the stock standard commission of 6% should be
less these days. I know in our area
there are stock and station agents selling lambs at on farm sales for
considerably less than 6%. Landcorp are
probably using their size to demand less commission, the bigger you are
logically the easier it is to negotiate a reduction. In any event it won’t change unless we all as
farmers start putting the heat on the companies and voting with our feet,
always an action that gets the most attention.
My Cull Stud Romney Ewe Lambs: I
do have surplus ewe lambs for sale. One
client takes about 90 every year, didn’t last year because of the drought, so
if there is anyone out there who is interested in purchasing a 150 or so good
ewe lambs for $20 more than my average kill price of lambs for the season, then
contact me as soon as possible, first in first served.
Science and cross breeding: I have
given my views on a number of issues over the years including myomax, carla
saliva test, sheep 5k and 50k, footrot test,
worm star, CT Scanning, SIL Ace index, cross breeding and closed flocks
among other things. For those of you who
have not received a newsletter from me before, simply go to my website www.waidalerams.co.nz
click on Newsletters in the menu and then open up the 2012 Newsletter
(mostly), I think you will find it interesting reading.
Catalogues will be posted out first week of November
for my on farm sale to be held at 3pm on Wednesday 25 November 2015. All rams offered and any going to Fielding
(unlikely) or Piggies going to Christchurch will be uploaded at www.agonline.co.nz
around this same time (about 3 weeks before the sale): all you will have
to do is go to that site and click on the Waidalerams
sale icons to get there.
If anyone has any questions about anything I have
written please feel free to contact me, I welcome the discussion. But if I don’t see you before, I look forward
to an agent bringing you to my sale or
under your own steam and having one or more beers with you.
