Dear HR Clients + Sheep breeding colleagues,
Hard to believe it’s the middle of 2020 already!
The HR team is busy focussing on our final lambing and tagging, and refining our sire team for the 2-Tooth sale. The Poll and Horned Merino teams are looking fantastic, with +320g/day weight gains. Our 2019 drop Horned Merino Sires are averaging 69.5kg, and gaining 320g each per day. Our Poll Merino Sires are averaging 71kg,with the same strong weight gains.
We are pleased to invite you to our 2020 HR Open Day on August 20, this will be one of the earliest opportunities to view our Sale Team.
We look forward to hosting you at our 2020 On-Property 2-Tooth Sale where we will offer 150 Horned and 100 Poll Merinos. For those unable to attend in person, we will hold a webinar in coming months to discuss the sale team and where you will have the opportunity to ask Stud Manager Andy Maclean questions, as well as hosting the final sale online (auctions plus link below).
WHERE TO FIND US IN 2020
20 August: On-Farm Open Day
25-26 August: Dubbo National Show and Sale (CONFIRMED!)
1 September: South West Slopes Stud Merino Field Day (TBC)
10 September: On-Farm and Online Merino and Poll Merino 2-Tooth Sale (register with AuctionsPlus below), catalogue coming soon!
Throughout 2020: HR+Update in your inbox + contact Andy Maclean to arrange an inspection!
INDUSTRY NEWS
HR is pleased to participate in the 2020 Rabobank Dubbo National Ram Sale and Merino Exhibition on Tuesday 25th and Wednesday 26th August at Dubbo Showgrounds. The two day event format will be a Merino Stud ram display and pre-sale inspection on Day 1 and a Merino Stud ram display, pre-sale inspection and afternoon Ram sale on Day 2, there will be no sheep show held in conjunction with this event due to the COVID-19 risk management rules. Haddon Rig will have a large display of our 2020 Merino & Poll Merino auction rams for inspection.
Pictured below: Our 2020 Horned Merino Auction Team, May-shorn and enjoying the lush green paddocks at HR!
CLIENT NEWS
The Haddon Rig team were recently lucky to visit new clients Jack & Pip Harris along with their Livestock Manager Mark Jones at Brewon Station 40 kms north of Carinda.
Jack is a third generation farmer running the large scale Merino sheep and mixed farming property as part of the Harris family enterprise.
Brewon has purchased a number of Merino Rams privately and at the HR 2-Tooth auction over the past couple of years, as well as purchasing rams from long time Haddon Rig daughter stud, Boorooma Merinos, selected and classed by HR Representative Paul Kelly. Jack’s focus has been to breed large framed, fertile, highly productive Merino sheep into his flock and the results speak for themselves. Despite receiving an annual rainfall of only 112 mm to February 2020 Brewon averaged 6.0kgs of wool per head for their mature ewes in May. The entire flock of close to 10,000 ewes were scanned in early May at 130% in lamb, with one of the top mobs of mixed aged Merino ewes producing over 60% twins and scanning over 160% in lamb, again this is a magnificent achievement for the Haddon Rig bloodline & Jack & Mark’s excellent management. Given the prolonged severe drought conditions of 2020, this is further proof that HR breeds highly fertile, dual-purpose Merino sheep.
We also enjoyed our tour of Jack’s large commercial feedlot which fattens Merino and Cross-Bred lambs through a diet of wheat, canola meal pellet and Coprice feedlot pellets. The Merino wethers gain an average of 250g per day with the tops gaining over 300g per day. The lambs are purchased at 35 – 40kgs and fed in the feedlot for 60 days before being turned off at 50 - 60kgs. With the buoyant lamb prices the last 12 months of over $7 per kg and current prices of $8 - $9 per kg, the feedlot has proven a great way to generate income during the testing conditions we have endured over the past few years. We would also like to add it is a tribute to Jack’s planning and research to how low cost and practical their whole feed system layout is. Jack utilised his existing on-farm grain facilities very well to incorporate it into a large scale labour efficient sheep feedlot. We wish Jack & Mark all the very best in the coming months and hope they have a great lambing.
