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.