SRS Sheep, Goats, Alpacas

Paddock run and naturally productive

Poll Merino rams and Merino rams, 12 months old, at Richmond.

The Richmond flock was founded in 1994 with the purchase of pure Severn Park blood ewes and rams.

In 2001 on the advice of our sheep classer, Charlie Massy, we decided to create a nucleus ewe flock and implement a laparoscopic insemination program to breed replacement rams. In 2004 we were accepted as a stud within the SRS® Merino breeding system.

Over time we have developed the stud to approximately 500 ewes. In June 2008 we expanded our numbers by purchasing 122 in-lamb stud ewes at the Severn Park dispersal sale.

In recent years there has been a strong emphasis on increasing the Poll gene within the flock. In 2010, 70% of our stud ewes were joined to Poll sires.

We believe present and future market trends dictate that we produce an animal with a strong emphasis on meat production growing good commercial weights of superior processing fibres with ethical animal husbandry practices and limited chemical use.

There are five components that control our selection procedure and steer us towards this vision:

1. Skin Structure

The sheep must be plain-bodied and wrinkle free with a thin, loose and supple skin. The skin is the engine room of fibre production and if the follicle structure is correct the animal will produce large amounts of high quality fibre.

2. Fibre

The wool must be silky soft, deeply crimped forming small fibre bundles, white, free of suint and very long.

3. Frame and feed conversion efficiency

We select for early maturity and high growth rate. The sheep must be well muscled with good fat cover and it is our policy to only use sires with high breeding values (asbv) for body weight gain, eye muscle depth and fat cover.

The Richmond sheep, being plain-bodied with good muscle patterning and good fat cover and reared with minimal supplementary feeding, bounce back quickly after drought, lambing, weaning and other stressful times, saving a fortune in hand feeding costs.

4. Fertility

We consider fertility to be a major profit driver especially under current market conditions. At Richmond, all dry ewes are culled and a strong emphasis is placed on twinning.

Because we identify lambs born to their mothers we are in a position to identify and allocate for special matings and retain for longer those stud ewes which have the highest lifetime records of lambs weaned and the lowest levels of lambs lost.

5. Conformation

All of our sheep must be structurally correct. This is the first thing we look at in the classing race. We also like our sheep to have long and deep bodies with good neck extension and a triple wedge body shape.

The loose skin creates a large body surface area to grow more wool. The thin skin ensures the sheep is wrinkle free and does not need to be mulesed.

Richmond fleece wool. The sheep produce, on average, 6.0 to 7.5 kilograms of 17.5 to 19.5 micron wool each year, depending on the season.

Nine months old, paddock run Merino wether lambs at Richmond.

Every ewe and ram on Richmond is classed annually, initially in the wool whereupon all inferior wool types, dry ewes, smaller frames and conformation faults are culled.

Following this, all remaining sheep are skin graded off the board at shearing time. Any sheep that are thick skinned or have pin wrinkle and have been overlooked in the first classing are then culled. Only the best skinned animals go into the stud.

All stud ewes and lambs are pedigreed annually. This important information is used to assist in mating and selection decisions and to help superior breeding ewes and potential sires that have the genetic strength and stability to make a positive impact within the stud.

The sheep have always and will continue to be visually assessed in the classing race using objective measurements and breeding values for carcase traits and fecundity as back up tools.

Classing mixed aged ewes in 6 months wool at Richmond.

There is a strong emphasis at Richmond on environmentally sustainable management. Holistic grazing is practised at Richmond.

Except for joining and lambing the sheep are run in large mobs and are moved regularly in a rotational grazing system that encourages the growth of the native perennial grasses.

All sheep on Richmond are run under commercial conditions providing supplementary feed only in times of nutritional stress. Our stud sheep graze the same country as our flock sheep and we are not interested in any form of artificial feeding or showring activity.

No rams are shedded. The rams are run straight in from the paddock on sale day. The sheep must be able to perform in their natural environment and this will continue to be our policy. The sheep graze clean, chemical free pastures and there is no mulesing or body jetting.

Mixed age ewes grazing native pasture at Richmond.

Seven months old Merino ewe lambs, recently joined, at Richmond.

Richmond is primarily a grazing property and has been since it was first settled.

A limited area has been sown to cereal crops each winter undersowing with lucerne and clover.

In recent years however the practice of pasture cropping has been introduced in an effort to maintain native grasses and increase ground cover

Typical grazing country at Richmond.

* 2010 On Property Ram Sale on Tuesday 05 October 2010

* Richmond will be offering 70-80 fourteen month old Poll and horned Merino rams, paddock run, with breeding values (asbv) provided as well as comprehensive wool figures and pedigrees.

* Grade rams will be available for private slection from the day after the sale

* Wool test averages for the past 5 years for the sale rams are:

Semen sire 8-13 pictured right is an oustanding son of Leahcim 5-154.

He is a trait leader for body growth, fleece weight, staple length, fertility and no breech wrinkle.

He also carries a beautiful white, deeply crimped SRS® fleece.

His breeding values (asbv) are:

Two year old Poll Merino sire 8-13 at Richmond.

Richmond is a family business owned and managed by Trevor and Sarah Ryan. Their sons Reuben and Monty are the fifth generation to breed Merino sheep on the property.

The Ryan family are passionate Merino breeders and are committed to continually improving the breed in a sustainable, eco-friendly environment

Trevor, Reuben, Monty & Sarah Ryan.

At Richmond we are firmly committed to standing by our product.

The profitability of our clients enterprise is of utmost importance and we are more than happy to assist in any way.

Our client services package includes the following:

* Free of charge annual classing of all sheep

* Rams guaranteed with credit available for any animals that upon inspection have failed to perform at a satisfactory level in the 12 months following purchase

Sales rams on display at Richmond On Property Ram Sale.

"After buying our first Richmond rams in 2001, we began the process of breeding an easy care sheep that still remains productive. By 2004, we felt we had no need to treat our breeding flock for body strike. From Christmas 2009 to March 2010 we received 433 millimetres (11 inches) of rain and during this period we had no fly strike with our sheep in full wool.

Over this time, we have still managed to increase our wool cut and decrease our micron."

- C & J Dixon, "Lavendo", Quandialla NSW.

"We have used Richmond Merinos exclusively since 2002 after 15 years on Soft Rolling Skin® bloodlines.

Richmond Merinos offers us a strong local bloodline that we know will flourish in our environment and cope well with our specific conditions. The large framed, plain-bodied Richmond types are ideal for a dual purpose operation, which suits our mixed farming enterprise.

The lambs are maturing early and allow us to sell our wethers into the fat trade, while the bright long stapled bold crimping wool is the finest I have produced in more than 30 years of wool growing.

The combination of high value wool and quick growth gives our operation flexibility and responsiveness to market conditions, and I have no hesitation in giving Richmond Merinos our highest recommendations."

- D & G Jacobs, "Wallendbeen Station", Wallendbeen NSW.

"We moved over to the Richmond Merino rams 5 years ago and have noticed great improvements in both the frame of our sheep and our wool quality. The sheep are easier to shear due to their plainer bodies. They are cutting more wool and it is softer.

This is our first year of trailing non-mulesing, an unusually wet and humid summer followed. We have had very little fly problems in the lambs, no more than usual in conventional mulesing.

We will continue with the Richmond Merino rams and our non-mulesing practice as we are very pleased with the quality and improvements in our sheep and to date the results look very promising."

- H & N Hunter, "Rockleigh", Young NSW.

Breeding highly profitable, easy care SRS® Merinos

Glenwood is situated about 29 kilometres east of Wellington on the Central West Slopes of New South Wales. The property is 600 metres above sea level and averages approximately 650 millimetres (26") of rainfall per year which is neither winter nor summer dominated.

Glenwood runs predominantly a Merino breeding enterprise including 600 stud ewes and 3500 flock ewes. Other supplementary enterprises include cattle trading as the season allows.

The pastures are dominated by winter and summer native perennials which have been complimented by a super and sub clover history.

Today Norm and Pip manage the whole including the landscape, the livestock, the business and the people holisitically.

Norm and Pip are encouraging greater diversity of desirable species with rotational grazing enabling short graze periods and long rest periods.

Glenwood has seen a number of changes since managing in this way. Changes include 100% ground cover, a huge diversity of perennial plant species, an improvement in soil nutrition and microbial activity, an increase in soil organic matter, increased water holding capacity, no feed for artificial fertilisers, minimal chemical use. Glenwood recognises the need with climate variability to have a very resilient land base which can adapt quickly to change. Not only is it sustainable, it is regenerative.

Norm and Pip are managing the livestock so that they can minimize chemical use. They are loweing worm burdens by better grazing techniques and eliminating the need to jet for fly strike through genetics and management.

Through all of the above Norm and Pip have lowered the cost of production or the inputs while dramatically improving the outputs.

Long term management will take the business into the future where consumers and the public are looking for ecologically and ethically sound products and landcapes

Glenwood is also monitoring the progress using indicators for the people, the business and the landscape.

Rams are rotated on a productive perennial pasture and presented for sale out of the paddock.

Norm is passionate about value adding the unique qualities and story of the SRS® fibre.

Glenwood's breeding objective is simply to breed SRS® Merino sheep which are highly productive, profitable and easy care. Currently the ewes produce, on average, 6.5 kilograms of 18.6 micron wool and rear 120% lambs. The aim is to produce 8.0 kilograms of 18.0 micron wool per ewe.

Selection of sheep is based on the following criteria: structure, frame, length of body and body weight; skins must be thin and soft; wools must be long, soft, glossy, white and free of suint; early maturity and positive muscling and fat; all ewes must be fertile and docile; and always remain commerically focused.

The Glenwood wool is distinctive for its exceptional softness, whiteness and crimp definition. The wool has become progressively finer as a result of selecting for high density on a plain bodied sheep.

The sire and dam of each Glenwood stud sheep is recorded. All stud ewes have been mothered up since 2005 by drifting the ewes off as they lamb and tagging and recording information such as whether it was a twin or single and what sort of mother the ewe was. Performance records on wool production, body growth, muscle and fat patterning and fecundity of the progeny are kept. Breeding values are derived for each animal, whether it be the sire, the dam or its progeny.

By identifying the most potent dams it is hoped to one day undertake a successful embryo transfer program. The ewes mothering ability is highly heritable such that the best mothers stand out year after year.

All stud ewes each year are allocated to single sire matings through the classing box by Dr. Jim Watts. The ewes are correlatively mated to ensure that wool fibre density and length, body growth and muscle and fat patterning are each receiving similar selection pressure.

All ewes are wet and dried at lamb marking to identify and cull ewes which are inherently bad mothers. A calm docile ewe is always going to be a better mother and these types of ewes again and again stand out.

Glenwood rams are wrinkle free (above) and have bred these wrinkle free and growthy 9 months old lambs (below) seen here off the board, which are not mulesed.

This procedure is done to ensure that each plain-bodied and wrinkle free ram we choose to use as a sire has a high density of wool follicles in its skin, and a high output of long, fine and evenly sized wool fibres. We require each sire to have 80 or more follicles per square millimetre and fibre length above 0.50 millimetres per day. Average values for traditionally bred Merino sheep are much lower - namely about 55 follicles per square millimetre and 0.30 millimetres per day respectively.

In plain-bodied Merino sheep with high levels of fibre density and fibre length, the fleece consists essentially of fibres that are highly aligned cylinders of uniform diameter and length. The fibres are smooth surfaced (due to the long, cuticular scales of low scale height) and have a high crimp amplitude (deep crimp) and usually low crimp frequency (bold crimp). These fibre properties create a fleece composed of fibre bundles (not staples) of superb fineness, softness, lustre, high elasticity of deep and well-defined crimp.

Examples of the test results for Glenwood sires are listed in Table 1.

Rams are presented out of the paddock.

Each ram has its full pedigree displayed and its breeding values for wool, carcase and fertility traits.

Glenwood SRS® rams, future directions.

Glenwood is run by Norman and Pip Smith and their 5 children Chloe, Amber, Maggie, William and Daisy. Norman is fourth generation Smith on Glenwood where the stud has also been established since 1929. Norm and Pip are particularly passionate about the future of agriculture and the merino industry. They have been heavily involved in differentiating the SRS® wool supply and adding value through the ethical and performance advantages that SRS® can offer.

The Smith Family, left to right: Maggie, Amber, Daisy, Pip, Chloe and Will.

"From a shearers perspective Glenwood's Sheep are far superior to shear than traditional sheep.
This is due to less wrinkled skin which results in less skin cuts and less struggling of the sheep and the shearer.

The shearer's comb travels through the fibre a lot easier because they are not intertwined. This means the shearer can shear more sheep through less effort, and there is more wool in the fleece lines instead of under the table as locks."

- Warren Long, Shearer/Contractor, Wellington NSW