Victorian farmers ditch wool for Sheepmasters born at Merton breeding flock

A Merton breeding flock for the Sheepmaster Parent Stud based at Woodstock, Cowra, NSW, is refining the genetics of the "low touch" breed.

Charlie Sullivan ran 300 Sheepmaster stud ewes as part of his Merton operation and once lambs were weaned, they were sent north to the stud's Cowra selling centre.

Last year, the parent stud upped sticks and moved across the country from WA, with the majority of the ewes carried over in lamb.

"When we moved over here from WA, we split the sheep between here and Cowra," Mr Sullivan explained.

"We breed them down, we wean them, and then we send them up to Cowra."

He was over the moon with the stud's recent inaugural on-farm ram sale, mostly because 29 of the 100 rams were sold to Victorian buyers.

Eight buyers from across the state took home rams from the Cowra sale which saw 100 offered, with a total clearance and an average of $2815.

Mr Sullivan said the sale went "really well".

"More pertinent to here is that there were eight buyers from Victoria," he said.

"We were really happy with it and they bought 29 rams.

"That was impressive, we thought."

All except two of these buyers purchased Sheepmaster genetics for the first time and Mr Sullivan said they went to all sorts of new homes.

"We developed two different classing lines for our sale, an improver line and a corrector line," he said.

"A lot of the Victorian people went for that improver line so they're the ones who have already got shedding sheep and they're just looking to get a bit more meat and a bit more muscle on to those lambs.

"Our scope allows people to pick and choose."

The eight Victorian buyers were from Euroa, Mansfield, Nhill, Serpentine and Vite Vite.

Mr Sullivan felt the move from wool sheep to shedding breeds was picking up pace.

"Shedders have been around for a long time, 20 years or more in Australia, but the momentum has really been in the last two or three years," he said.

Many of those looking at the Sheepmaster breed were looking for a "lower touch" sheep, according to Mr Sullivan.

He said Sheepmasters were replacing the first cross ewe and then, the typical Merino flock.

"There were a lot of 65-70 year old farmers [at the sale] that have run Merinos or wool sheep and now [buying shedders] is like a step to semi-retirement because they're a lot easier to manage," he said.

"The way agriculture has moved and the next generation of farmers, they're more mixed.

"Mixed farming has grown, for example.

"They love cropping but they haven't loved sheep because of how much work it takes and it doesn't necessarily compliment.

"That's the perfect one for shedding sheep because they're 'low touch'."

The breed had this "low touch" yet high output trait in all aspects, especially when it came to breeding, Mr Sullivan pointed out.

"We push them fairly hard because they're extremely fertile," he said.

"We go for three lambings in two years.

"Practically, as soon as it's two weeks after weaning, we wean at the median age of 12 weeks, the rams go back in with the ewes.

"We push them hard and they perform.

"They're non seasonal so they can join at any time, it's all just based on their condition."

A better prime lamb market was also pricking up the ears of many sheep producers, all to the Sheepmaster's advantage.

"There's certainly a lot more confidence in that, if you're comparing output in all commodities," Mr Sullivan said.

"It's fair to say there's a lot more confidence in meat than there is in wool, for example."

He said a payment of $8.00-9.00 a kilogram for lambs was "pretty attractive" for producers and the lower end of this was "reasonably sustainable" going forward.

Mr Sullivan said entering the shedding game was now far more affordable than it was two years ago, when good ewes were in tight supply and at a high cost point.

"Now, the entry level is so much more attractive," he said.

"There's a real opportunity at the moment."

The Sheepmaster Parent Stud ran 1500-1600 ewes across its properties and had plans for further expansion.

"We're looking to really significantly increase those numbers as the stud grows," Mr Sullivan said.