BIG DEMAND FOR ROSSITER RESTOCKERS
The Rossiter family at Ungarie, west of West Wyalong, have no trouble at all marketing their young Haddon Rig-blood ewes to first cross lamb producers. "Haddon Rig have proven themselves to have depth in their breeding, and we've improved our frame size and wool cut since using their rams," says Harold Rossiter, "Youngara".
"Using Haddon Rig Rams has improved our fertility and the quality of our wool, whilst keeping the carcass attributes that we need to turn our wethers off as lambs. Even in tough conditions, we know that Haddon Rig sheep will still do well, growing plenty of wool and producing a lot of lambs. Our lambing rates have been excellent: with our 5-year average at 114.16% lambs marked to ewes joined.
Since first buying Haddon Rig sires, we have seen a noticeable increase in the size and quantity of lambs on the ground. Haddon Rig sires produce good strong robust lambs that hit the ground running. The wools are bulky and white with reasonable condition in it which aids in keeping the dust out which is critical in our red country. Our 5yr average cut is 8.16 kg per head of 20.12 micron. We have found the HR team are very good to deal with, always happy to help anyway they care and are genuinely interested in how the sheep perform at home."
CLIENT TESTIMONIAL - RICHARD GREEN
The Green family at "Olieview", Parkes, are regular winners and place getters in the annual Parkes Ewe Competition and have been buying rams directly from Haddon Rig since the 1950s - and an HR daughter stud prior to that. "They're a very even-fleeced, heavy cutting sheep," Richard Green says.
"What you see is what you get. We get very few cast lines in a well-classed clip... We find that we get really good main lines in a well-managed flock - it's just a pleasure to put the wool through the press. We get good crimp definition, good length, the sheep yield well... they comb well - we find the shearers comment on that - and the sheep are very fertile."
CLIENT TESTIMONIAL - Ian & Belinda Duncan, “Torrakina”, Inverell, NSW
In wetter than average years, Haddon Rig Merinos have impressed clients Ian and Belinda Duncan. In 2021, the Duncan’s recorded 45 inches of rain for the year. The Duncan family runs 600 ewes at “Torrakina”, Inverell where the average rainfall is 30 inches (60% of which falls in summer). This is a far cry from Ian and Belinda’s previous life at Isis Downs Merino Stud, Isisford QLD where Ian managed 40,000 Merino ewes on 16 inches of rain and was a regular attendee at Haddon Rig auctions buying stud rams.
Like many others, the Duncan’s destocked during the drought years. When it was time to boost the numbers again, they purchased a run of quality Haddon Rig blood ewes from long term Haddon Rig clients, the Francis Brothers, “Gobothery”, Forbes.
“We bought mixed age scanned-in-lamb ewes and one and half year-old surplus ewes to restock,” he said. “We had everything going against us last year and had some concerns about how they might handle the extreme wet, but we were quite impressed – the Haddon Rig’s do handle the weather,” Ian said. The Duncan’s are also regulars at the Haddon Rig on-property sale, purchasing four rams per year for use at “Torrakina”.
They have been selecting their sires with a focus on frame and wool cut, looking for soft, bright, low microning wools to suit their environment. At the 2022 general shearing in February the grown sheep averaged 6.5kg with the mixed age ewes testing 18.5 microns and the maidens 18 with a yield of 74%. At this year’s preg-scanning the maiden ewes had the great result of only 2% being dry.
“In our experience, the Haddon Rig rams have a lot more nourishment than others in the industry,” Ian said. “We have also found their longevity to be better – our Haddon Rig blood ewes maintain quality wool and character as five and six year old’s.”
CLIENT TESTIMONIAL - Chris Francis, “Gobethery”, Forbes, NSW
”We run a mixed farming operation consisting of a self-replacing merino flock, a self-replacing shorthorn cattle herd, dryland cropping and irrigation. Stuart Murdoch has been classing our ewes and selecting our rams for 15 years. The transformation of our sheep and their productivity is nothing short of extraordinary. The consistency of our sheep type and wools produced is something we are very proud of. Our ewes are large framed, highly fertile, cutting a soft white well-nourished wool and plenty of it. We have very few lines at shearing with the older ewes maintaining their terrific wool quality. We have zero body strike issues in untreated sheep which is a true indicator of Stuart’s attention to detail at classing.
Like most mixed farmers you need good people as your time is spread across multiple production systems. Stuart is a man we have come to trust and have learned so much from over the years. We have said for some time you would have to look far and wide to find a better hand on a sheep or a more passionate person in the merino industry; quantified by his recent appointment as stud classer at Haddon Rig, Roseville Park and Dunbogan. We have no hesitation in recommending Stuart to anyone seeking assistance with their sheep operation. Truly outstanding.”