Southdown Sheep Society, NZ

ON A ROLL: Christina Jordan has had her fair share of success in the show ring and the auction arena.

A trifecta that would make the heart race for any punter looms in the unlikely arena of a ram auction.

Blenheim father and daughter, Ian and Christina Jordan, from Willowhaugh Enterprises had a good pay day when a pair of rams made $16,000 and $12,000 to top the bidding at Canterbury A&P Association ram and ewe sale last Friday.

The southdown ram duo were among three Jordan rams that won the all breeds food and fibre trifecta at last month’s Canterbury A&P Show. The $16,000 ram went a step further, winning the best carcass sheep class.

The third member of the trifecta will go in front of North Island bidders at the Feilding ram sale next week and should it match the other bids the trio could raise the Jordans’ earnings to the $40,000 range.

Christina Jordan said she split the trio because she had good North Island clients and always supported the Feilding sale.

“It’s pretty exciting and must be nice for the judges to be proven right because we always hear about them being proven wrong. The [first two rams] have got a very good average at the moment and we wouldn’t want to expect as much as the other two, but he’s as good as the other two and has strengths the others don’t have.”

The Jordans’ main concern was being able to catch a ferry across to the sale as one was out of commission and sailings for the other were tight with the Christmas rush approaching.

The three rams were sired by a Jordan ram which won the all breeds supreme meat sheep for the second year in a row at the Canterbury show. The sire, bought by the Jordans from Canterbury breeder Chris Medlicott, has more than made up for its initial investment of $8500 in its first crop of rams.

The $16,000 ram was bought by David Gillespie, from Oxford, while the final bid for the $12,000 ram went to Julie and Richard Gill, from Takaka, with Australian semen rights bought by the Fernhill Southdown Stud in Victoria.

Another southdown ram owned by Medlicott sold for $11,000 to Todd Anderson, from Southland.

Dunsandel breeder Guy Abbott sold a suffolk ram for $7500 with semen shares going to Australia and the Seaton brothers sold a suffolk for $7000 which the Jordans matched with another southdown ram which was not exhibited at the Canterbury show.

Total sales for the lineup of 263 rams and 10 ewes clipped $306,000 at the sale. This was up on last year’s result; however, sale averages were down at $1867 for rams and $287 for ewes.

Last year’s drought in the North Island and a large ewe kill were contributing factors to lower individual prices, said PGG Wrightson NZ Livestock genetics manager Bruce Orr.

“The biggest driver is the continuing depreciation of commercial ewes in all provinces of New Zealand, the follow on is that stud breeders are selling less commercial rams.”

The total of 163 rams sold was the best clearance in the last four events.

Another six ewes were sold and the rest were either passed in after failing to meet reserve prices or withdrawn.

Ram prices averaged $2422 in the last event held this year in January, $2172 last year and $1781 in 2011.

The ram and ewe sale was traditionally held over two days in January, but the event was brought forward to a single day sale in November to bring it into line with the ram-selling season.

A southdown ram selling for $16,000 to an Oxford farmer topped the catalogue at Canterbury’s major ram and ewe sale.

The southdown ram presented by Blenheim father and daughter, Ian and Christina Jordan from Willowhaugh Enterprises, was sold to A D Gillespie of Oxford.

The Jordans offered a selection of southdowns which were prizewinners at last month’s Canterbury A&P Show. A southdown trio won the all breeds food and fibre trifecta including the ram winning the best carcass sheep class.

Total sales for the lineup of 263 rams and 10 ewes clipped $306,000 at the Canterbury A&P Association Ram and Ewe Sale last Friday.

This was up on last year’s result, however, sale averages were down at $1867 for rams and $287 for ewes.

Last year’s drought in the North Island and a large ewe kill were contributing factors to lower individual prices, said PGG Wrightson NZ Livestock genetics manager Bruce Orr.

“The biggest driver is the continuing depreciation of commercial ewes in all provinces of New Zealand, the follow-on is that stud breeders are selling less commercial rams.”

The total of 163 rams sold was the best clearance in the last four events.

Ram prices averaged $2422 in the last event held this year in January, $2172 last year and $1781 in 2011.

The ram and ewe sale was traditionally held over two days in January, but the event was brought forward to a single day sale in November to bring it into line with the ram-selling season.

Southdown Judge(s): Blair Robertson, Gore Scott Innes, Warkworth

– Associate Judge Brian Hayman, Rangiora & David Wylie, Ashburton –

Merial Alliance Class Ram, over 18 months, shorn. (3): Jordan I M & C A 1, Brannigan S W 2.

Alliance NZ Ltd Ram, under 18 months, shorn. (22): Jordan I M & C A, Medlicott Chris J, Williams P G, F C & B R, Jordan I M & C A 1, Macaulay BC 2, Macaulay J J 3.

Alliance NZ Ltd & Merial Ancare Quality Meat Yield Class, two Rams, (13): Jordan I M & C A 1, Medlicott Chris J 2, Tasvic Family Trust 3, Medlicott Chris J 4, Macaulay J J 5, Williams P G, F C & B R 6.

Champion Southdown Ram : I M & C A Jordan.

John Deans Southdown Sheep Terrine Canterbury A&P Association trophy awarded to John Deans in 1884 : I M & C A Jordan.

Reserve Champion Southdown Ram : I M & C A Jordan.

Ewe, over 30 months, shorn, and her suckling lamb(s). (6): Jordan I M & C A 1, Jordan I M & C A 2, Jordan I M & C A 3.

Ewe, 18 to 30 months, shorn and her suckling lamb(s. (6): Jordan I M & C A 1, Williams P G, F C & B R 2, Brannigan S W 3.

Essential Nutrition Ewe, under 18 months, shorn. (12): Williams P G, F C & B R , Gillespie A D , Medlicott Chris J , Christey A C & L K 1, Christey A C & L K 2, Williams P G, F C & B R 3.

Allflex NZ Ltd Pair of Ewes, under 18 months, shorn. (11): Macaulay BC 1, Macaulay BC 2, Jordan I M & C A 3.

Champion Southdown Ewe : I M & C A Jordan.

Jarman Cup – Perpetual Trophy awarded to Champion Southdown Ewe: Jordan I M & C A.

Reserve Champion Southdown Ewe : I M & C A Jordan.

Supreme Champion Southdown : I M & C A Jordan.

James Deans Challenge Shield – Most Points Southdown Section. : I M & C A Jordan.

Allflex Best Carcase Southdown. Allflex kindly donate a $50 voucher.: Jordan I M & C A.

2013 NZ Northern Tour Group

Around 40 breeders enjoyed the fantastic Northern hospitality on our Annual Tour & AGM in May.

Visit Photo Gallery

Ian and Christina Jordan’s ram which was winner of the Supreme Meat Sheep at the Canterbury A&P Show, also received the ‘Royal’ treatment and pat of approval when meeting His Royal Highness Prince Charles & Camilla the Duchess of Cornwall.

Prince Charles chats with Christina Jordan

Jordans Southdown ram receives the Royal hand of approval

Below are more photos from the Canterbury A&P Show. Click to enlarge.

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Southdown breeder Lachlan Elliot established his Lammermoor stud in 2005.

When Duncan Elliot was a young boy, all he wanted was a shearing hand-piece.

Forget the PlayStation games and other electronic gizmos that his contemporaries desired, he was firmly focused on farming.

Now 16, Duncan, from Lammermoor Station, Paerau, in the south of the Maniototo, started crutching when he was 10 and began shearing his own sheep last year. He, his elder brother Lachlan (20) and sister Brooke (22) have inherited a family passion for the land, and for purebred sheep.

The Elliot family has been on Lammermoor Station since the 1920s and the 5200ha property is now farmed by John and Susan Elliot with their children.

Duncan, who has a Romney stud, and Lachlan, who has a Southdown stud, both with the Lammermoor prefix, were now third-generation stud breeders on both sides of their family.

It had always been an interest for the pair and while it was a passion, it was also very much a business.

Lachlan and Duncan began selling their current crop of rams last week, preferring to sell privately rather than at auction. Both breeds were also used over some of the halfbred and merino ewes on the station.

The Paerau area was known for its very harsh winters, with plenty of frosts and snow, and hot, dry Central Otago summers. It was a testing environment for sheep, which shifted well out of the district, they said.

Asked whether there was any sibling rivalry, Lachlan diplomatically explained there was ”always brotherly competition”.

”But then we both agree a Southdown across a Romney is a bloody good lamb,” he said.

Lachlan established his Southdown stud in 2005, purchasing 14 ewes from Leo Christey’s Mapua stud at Southbridge.

An opportunity later arose to buy fellow Maniototo stud breeder John Mulholland’s stud and numbers had slowly grown to about 270 breeding ewes.

The Southdown is the oldest of the terminal sire breeds in the UK and originated from the native sheep which roamed the South Downs in the south of England for hundreds of years. It was developed into a fixed type in the 18th century.

The first Southdown stud flock in New Zealand was founded in 1863 and the Southdown Society was formed in 1926.

The opportunity to own one of the few Southdown studs in the area was a drawcard for Lachlan, who was also attracted to the breed by it being a good early-lambing sheep, with an ability to finish quickly.

He was looking to sell about 80 rams a year but hoped in the future to build that up to 140 as he continued to increase ewe numbers, while not compromising quality.

He was trying to breed good, structurally sound, well-muscled sheep with the ability to ”get lambs away straight from mum”, but with the frame and length to be able to grow them out to a 21kg-23kg lamb later on.

Lachlan, who has sold rams as far afield as Canterbury and Southland and throughout the Maniototo, said his goal was to breed good, commercial rams for farmers.

He recently returned from a year-long stint overseas, spending time working on a farm in East Sussex, near where the Southdown breed originated. Their New Zealand counterparts were much bigger and with a lot more length to them, he said.

Farming in general in the UK was very different from New Zealand, and he reckoned the UK livestock farming systems were ”probably 50 years” behind those in New Zealand.

Handling stock was not easy; there were no sheep-handling facilities like sheep yards or shearing sheds, and moving stock was also an issue. Traditional breeds were still very much at the forefront, he said.

Duncan’s foray into stud breeding began in 2007, with the purchase of nine Romney ewes from Ron Jones, of Matarae Station, near Middlemarch, and about a dozen from Mr Mulholland. He now had about 100 breeding ewes, most of which were home-bred.

He was enthusiastic about his recent purchase of two rams from Blair and Sally Robertson’s Merrydowns stud at Waikoikoi, which included the top-priced lot of $3200 at the Robertsons’ annual sale last month.

Those acquisitions would bring different genetics, more meat and good wool to his flock, he said.

When it came to breeding, Duncan was focused on fertility, wool, meat production, conformation and maternal ability.

He admitted he was particularly passionate about wool, which was something of a family tradition.

Lammermoor Station has long been renowned for the ultrafine merino wool it produces.

Lammermoor wool, including Romney fleece – John and Susan Elliot used to have a Romney stud – has won many Otago and local fleece competitions, along with national Golden Fleece awards.

Duncan has already experienced success in fleece competitions, including being runner-up in the crossbred section of the Golden Fleece.

This year, he was selling about 30 rams and hoped to raise the number of rams available for sale.

At the same time, he wanted to ”keep the quality up, and the wool and have meat in the right places”. He aimed to produce as even a line of rams as possible.

Both Lachlan and Duncan were involved in all aspects of stud breeding, from looking after their client base to keeping up the paperwork.

Duncan reckoned having his own stud had taught him a lot about sheep. Attending other ram sales and viewing other breeders’ sheep proved useful for comparison..

A boarder at John McGlashan College, Dunedin, he headed home most weekends. Lambing was timed to coincide with holidays.

Several years ago, his ewes were lambing in 30cm of snow, yet the lambs were quickly up and about.

”They’re good lambers, good mothers. The lambs are born and they run.”

Once he left school, he hoped to initially either work on farms in Australia or head to Canada to be a hunting guide.

While the brothers had never been forced into stud breeding, or farming, their mother was delighted they had the interest, particularly at such a young age, and such an understanding of livestock.

Asked about the future of the sheep industry, Lachlan said it needed ”a bit of a shake-up” and he believed farmers needed to ”stick together”. Duncan reckoned farmers should ”get the basics right and stick with traditional breeds”.

Published Rural News 23 October 2012

FAST GROWING, easily delivered Southdown lambs

FAST GROWING, easily delivered lambs with great survivability and conformation: that’s what you can expect when you use a Southdown ram, says breed society president Blair Robertson.

Bruce Westgarth with a Southdown cross
lamb at tailing late September.

SOUTH CANTERBURY sheep and beef farmers the Westgarths run 4000 Coopdale ewes across two farms, one at 500m above sea-level on The Brothers range inland of Timaru, the other on the town’s outskirts.

“The two properties work so well together,” says Bruce, who runs the inland unit with wife Rosa. “We take all the older ewes down to Timaru where we put them to terminal sires: Southdown, Poll Dorset and Suffolk. We’ve had Southdowns for years. They produce good lambs, and early maturing.”

Nearly half the ewes on the 200ha down-country farm, which is run by their son Hamish and his wife Amanda are put to Southdowns, plus 300-400 at the 368ha Brothers property.

Replacements come from Coopdale hoggets, 1250 of which were run with the ram last autumn, with 1000 scanned inlamb.

While he’s well placed to do so, Westgarth’s wary of comparing performance of the different terminal sires he uses. “There’s good in all breeds.”

Most have made marked improvements in recent years and the Southdown is no exception. The short, stumpy lambs prone to running to fat if taken too heavy are long gone. In their place are rams which throw a longer, leaner lamb that’s still solidly built and fast finishing.

“Some people still have the wrong impression of them,” notes Westgarth. “They still think they’re wee fat things, though views are starting to change now.”

The growth of his Southdown x Coopdale lambs is rapid. Last year they started lambing August 22 and in the last week of November drafted 230, averaging 19.8kg.

“They always weigh heavier than they look.”

Admittedly, there were other breeds among them, but the Southdown at least held its share, if not more. Over the whole season, and all breeds,  average kill weight was 20.3kg cwt.

“We drafted lambs every week from the end of November through to May.”

Getting more lambs away early, plus an end of season contract for the last 2000, helped them average $136/head “without counting the wool off  them.”

As a rule they’re shorn at 38kg and go on the truck at 44kg, all to Silver Fern Farms.

Picks breeder more than ram

WESTGARTH’S APPROACH to ram selection is simple: find good breeders, stick with them and reward them.

“I don’t mind paying a good price for good rams because if the breeder can’t make money, they can’t improve the genetics can they?”

His three suppliers are all from South Canterbury. The Southdowns come from Chris Medlicott’s Tasvic Downs and Clifton Downs studs;  the Poll Dorsets from Steve McCall’s Castlerock stud, and the Suffolks and Coopdales from Peter Darling’s Coryston Stud.

 

Westgarth points out better prices for the lambs isn’t the only benefit to early finishing: their mothers make better money as cull ewes.

“We try to get them on the truck the next day.”

Space freed up on the down-country farm also allows more lambs and other stock to come down from The Brothers. With no irrigation, both properties can get dry. Again, fast growing, early finishing lambs are an advantage, in that more are gone before feed gets tight.

Published Rural News 23 October 2012

Southdown rams ready for sale this summer.

TALK TO commercial lamb producers using Southdown rams and you’ll find common threads running through all their comments, even if they are from opposite ends of the country.

Take Wayne Bloxham, at Whitiwhiti Station, north of Gisborne: by the time you read this, he will probably have sent his first draft of lambs to the works. “We aim for mid to late October, off their mums at 16kg carcase weight, sometimes a bit heavier.”

Southdown terminal sires are a key part of that early finishing strategy.

“We find they’re quite early maturing and quick to fatten. Normally we get a good pick off their mums and another big one when we wean them.”
At least half will be gone by the December draft and by the time it gets dry, as it can on the 1350ha medium steep coastal property, “there are bugger-all left.”

He lambs in July, the Southdowns running with 1200 of a 3000-head Coopworth flock.

“Their survival rate’s normally pretty good, though this lambing wasn’t exceptional because they dropped into puddles, it was so wet.”

He’s been using Southdowns for about nine years, and while he’s careful not to let lambs get too big, “they’re not like the old Southdown where the lambs went straight to fat,” he notes. “Now we try not to let them go over 23kg, though we have slipped up in the past and it’s not uncommon for some to hang up at 24-25kg.”

This year he’s lambed hoggets for the first time, using Southdowns as the sire with 80% of 600 mated getting in lamb. “There have been no lambing issues with them. They’ve been spitting them out like a piece of cake,” he said midway through the hoggets’ drop.

Down in Southland, Bill and Beth Gordon, Garston, are also keen to get lambs away early, albeit from much later lambing. “It can get quite dry here in the summer and if it gets dry, having quick maturing lambs means there’s more space for the Romneys,” notes Bill.

That means better grown replacements and better condition in the 2200-ewe Romney flock, feeding through to the following year’s lambing result. Even if it doesn’t get dry, having the crossbred lambs away sooner means more feed to do something else with, such as fatten cattle, he adds.

“We wean [lambs] the week before Christmas and take a draft then, up to 300 or 350 depending on the season.”

That’s from lambing starting the third week of September. He’s also using the Southdown across his hoggets.

“They seem to lamb reasonably easily.”

And while they don’t have the same coat as the purebred Romney lambs, there’s no problem with their vigour and survival as lambs, he adds.

Unlike Bloxham, Gordon’s stuck with the Southdown as his terminal sire of choice through thick and thin – “since the mid 1970s” – but makes similar comments to Bloxham about how they’ve changed over the years.

“They’ve got more stretch in them now whereas they used to be a bit short and dumpy and went to fat. They’re leaner now.”

And in recent years the Gordon’s have had the competition results to prove it: three times they’ve had lambs in the finals of the Golden Lamb Awards at Wanaka A&P Show.

“It’s just for interest really. Competitions are more interesting if you take part, rather than watching from the sidelines.”

The Annual Ram Fair was held in Christchurch recently.

Top Price Southdown went to new breeders Julie and Richard Gill of Takaka.  Whitborough  15/11 sold for $6,800 to Ross & Tracey McCall and D G Somerville.  He was sired by Willowhaugh 144/08 and his dam was Midlands 162/09. Whitborough  15/11 was ranked 2nd in the stud on SIL records and had the 2nd highest EMA of the sale rams  scanned on sale day.

Below you can see a photo and the results for the Southdowns.

Canterbury A&P Assn 2013 Stud Ram & Ewe Fair