Heavier fleeces, finer microns and more meat on offer at Yarrawonga Merinos

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Early adoption and a willingness to step outside its comfort zone have seen the rise of the Yarrawonga Merino stud to one of Australia's elite Merino seedstock businesses.

The family-owned business, run by Sam, Georgia, Steve and Liz Phillips has evolved to a 85,000 DSE breeding operation, running 30,000 sheep, including joining 20,000 commercial Merino ewes, and 3000 stud ewes. They also run 1800 Angus cows, with the heifer portion joined to Wagyu bulls in a first-cross breeding operation.

Today, Yarrawonga Pastoral owns and operates seven properties across Cooma, Harden, Yass and Gundagai. All properties are located in different rainfall areas, proving that the Yarrawonga Merino is both profitable and adaptable.

Stud principal Steve Phillips said the growth and expansion had been made possible through the profitability of their Merino flock.

"Our focus is to generate increased farm profits, and Yarrawonga sheep have the unique ability to increase fleece weights while decreasing micron, which has been proven through countless wether trials over the past 30 years," he said.

Yarrawonga is located at Cunningham Plains, Harden, where sheep are run on natural and improved pastures on granite soils with an average rainfall of 625 millimetres.

The growth of the Yarrawonga brand in the Merino industry has been based on measuring as many traits as possible. This creates data that helps to predict what the stud wants to breed and allows it to narrow that predictability to produce a consistent product that is highly marketable in the stud operation and for its clients.

The Purple Mandalay family line, sourced mainly through Roseville Park, has been exceptional for the Phillips family and is the cornerstone to its operation, underpinning the ewe base of the Yarrawonga flock.

Steve Phillips said the introduction of the Purple Mandalay bloodlines in the 1980s was a game-changer, with sheep that had waterproof wools and fine microns, and Yarrawonga has since based its whole operation on these bloodlines.

Sam Phillips said they were one of the early adopters of Sheep Genetics and ASBVs, and that early adoption is now paying off.

"Along with stringent visual classing on structure, we have the ability to really drill down on the key profitability traits that help drive better returns for our clients," he said.

"All Yarrawonga sheep are DNA tested at lambmarking. We commit to a huge annual investment into genomic testing with all lambs DNA tested and ASBVs supplied on all sheep."

He said this had helped the stud and its clients to improve their flocks by making the sheep truly genetically predictable.

"The growth and expansion at Yarrawonga has been backed by large AI and ET programs to make sure we are at the cutting-edge of the industry," he said.

Sam said this investment in data and predictable profit-driving traits allowed the stud to create the Yarrawonga Plus family, which has high growth rates, coupled with quality wool, while still maintaining a finer micron.

"They have been a game-changer in our operation. The Plus rams have become popular due to high, early growth and fertility, coupled with their plain bodies and unmulesed status."

He said they had massive early growth rates for people turning off lambs, and clients had been receiving premium prices that were equal to crossbreds in the market.

The Phillips family credits its success to always having a great team of passionate people with the drive to succeed. At present, Angus Campbell is the stud manager and Damien Meaburn is stud advisor.

"Today, we attend two premier events on the Merino calendar - Bendigo as a display only and the South West Slopes Merino Field Day. We were humbled to win the pen of three and ram of the year last year at the SWS Field Day," Mr Campbell said.

"We sell all of our rams at one year of age, and all of our production is based on the core elements of keeping as commercially focused as we can for our clients."

Mr Campbell said every ewe must rear a lamb or it was culled.

As the stud has evolved from its early beginnings at Jerangle in 1971, where Don and Thea Phillips founded Yarrawonga with 100 stud ewes, it has migrated to an 80 per cent Poll Merino base.

"We are breeding a more modern type of sheep, and the polls have allowed us to get there more quickly, as they are more fertile and have higher growth rates. We are selling 600 rams a year on average," Sam Phillips said.

"Our focus for the future is to keep driving traits that will make our clients more profitable, keeping our heavy fleece weights, while we improve the early growth in our lambs, to allow clients to capitalise on both meat and wool.

"If you have the shape in your sheep, you get the fertility and do-ability."

This philosophy has served the Phillips family well - the average micron of the 300-head ram sale team last year was 17.5 and 100 kilogram bodyweight off natural pastures and crop.

THIS IS BRANDED CONTENT FOR YARRAWONGA MERINOS