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Why HR

We are proud to combine phenotype 
and genotype when breeding a modern Merino 
and believe it is essential for producing animals that have both desirable physical traits and superior genetics.

The result is an increase in the productivity and profitability of the genetics we sell, whilst retaining the essential traits of conformation, type and structure.

Commercial benefits

Everything we do at Haddon Rig is focused on improving our clients’ profitability. This means producing rams with superior fertility that breed progeny that mature early, cut large amounts of high-quality wool over their entire lifetimes and have superior carcass traits. Striking the right balance between these traits is our core strength, as we carefully breed well-rounded animals that are able to do it all, without sacrificing structure or wool cut.

At Haddon Rig, consistency and reliability are our priority. At the heart of it, that’s why we’re still here after over 100 years. The guarantee of quality. We want the animals to perform across their lifetimes, producing wool and lambs in both dry and wet times. As the merino industry continues to evolve, we know this is what keeps our clients coming back year after year.

Haddon Rig introduced Australian Sheep Breeding Values in 2013. Haddon Rig has a 5-star rating from Sheep Genetics in recognition of our commitment to accurate data collection. DNA testing has allowed accurate pedigree recording on a large scale. By having a greater understanding of both parents we’ve been able to understand the relative performance of both dam and sire.

We believe is the combination of ASBVs with visual selection that results in the best breeding outcomes. As we add animals to the system, our accuracy is improving rapidly, and this, combined with our breeding selections, means we’ve seen rapid progress in our chosen ASBVs in the last 10 years. It is important to note that these improvements were made without sacrificing the wool cut and quality and structural integrity HR is known for.

Haddon Rig has recorded:

  • above industry averages for Adult Clean Fleece Weight (ACFW) and Yearling Clean Fleece Weight (YCFW)
  • 30% improvement in Yearling Fat Depth (YFAT) in 3 years, which we have achieved whilst maintaining fleece weight
  • 10% reduction in Yearling Fibre Diameter (YFD) value
  • 20% increase in Yearling Eye Muscle Depth (YEMD). Rams with more positive ASBVs for YEMD will produce progeny that have more muscle, independent of weight, and a higher lean meat yield
  • 10% increase in Weaning Rate (WR). WR calculates the predicted number of lambs weaned per ewes joined
  • 10% increase in Post Weaning Weight (PWWT)

Breeding Philosophy

Genetic Vision

As always, our priority is increasing the profitability of your flocks. Improving fertility is top of our minds as we aim to breed moderate-framed ewes that will breed a lot of lambs year-in, year-out! We continue to wet and dry our ewes each year, selling non-performers and selecting those ewes that breed singles and multiple lambs that survive and do well.

As we continue to finetune and incorporate ASBVs into our breeding program and improve our accuracies, a core focus continues to be improving the fly strike resistance scores of the sheep with Early Breech Cover (EBCOV) and Early Breech Wrinkle (EBWR). We are making rapid progress on these with our breech and wrinkle scoring and have dropped our raw breech and wrinkle scores by 1.5 in since 2021. At the same time, we are carefully increasing the selection pressure on condition scores (Yearling Eye Muscle Depth and Yearling Fat) to improve whole body body energy and drought resilience without losing the wool type and correctness our sheep are known for.