Peter Westblade delivers benchmarks for Merino improvement

31 Aug '12

5 min read

“The Peter Westblade allows us to benchmark our parent stud (Bogo) and our own flock to check that we’re achieving the expected genetic improvement,” Mr Weir said.

In the early years of wether trial participation, the data identified the need for the Weirs to change bloodlines to improve the rate of genetic gain in the targeted areas, with the flock not looking back since changing to Bogo rams.

Over the 15 years of participation in the trial, the average micron at Bertangles has decreased from 19.5 to 18, and fleece weight has increased by more than 1kg/hd.

Mr Weir runs Bertangles in partnership with his son David, sharing the duties of managing three separate blocks totalling 1850-hectares near Yass, NSW.

The Weirs run a self-replacing 18-micron Merino flock of 5000 ewes, with the flock numbering roughly 11,500 head over winter.

The Bertangles ewes are joined for four to five weeks from the beginning of April for lambing in August and September. Lambing percentages average between 85% and 95%, with results varying depending on the harshness of the winter and the available nutrition through that season.

The fleece weight for grown ewes generally ranges from 6kg to 6.5kg and for wethers 6-7kg.

“Our two most important performance indicators are micron and wool cut and we will keep putting pressure on to lower micron until we reach a point that it impacts fleece weight,” Mr Weir said.

When selecting rams other traits pursued include loose supple skin and broad crimping wools, as well as a visual assessment for conformation, while breeding values are reviewed for growth rates.

“We take note of Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) but we also place a lot of emphasis on Bogo’s own flock indices,” Mr Weir said. “We believe that ASBVs are a good guide, but feel that stud indices provide added accuracy as long as they have been benchmarked against other studs through wether trials.

"At present, ASBVs are the only tool available to give an indication of ranking of specific traits”.

“Wether trials may not be perfect but these are the objective means we use for bloodline comparisons.”

Thanks to the data delivered by the Challenge, an area that has been identified as requiring improvement is the flock’s growth rate and over the last five years greater emphasis has been placed upon selecting rams which will improve end carcase weights.

“All of the information derived from the trials is useless unless you see how it can be applied to the rest of your flock,” Mr Weir said. “It’s very important to us that we keep on benchmarking to make sure that not only the Bogo genetics are the most suitable, but also that our flock is up there and going ahead.”

Sheep CRC

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