Although Flaxton in the hills behind Cheviot in North Canterbury is the oldest merino stud in New Zealand, it is also one of the most forward looking.
“We have been breeding for 100 years so have continuity and experience but you have to keep moving forward to anticipate end user demands and changing markets,” explains third generation stud master Ian Stevenson.
“You need to try to anticipate these because you have a constant time lag when breeding rams from when you make a mating decision and when you end up with the final product. Experience allows you to make that decision and continuity increases the certainty of the outcome.”
All Ian’s breeding decisions aim to reduce the cost of farming sheep while maintaining high productivity. One of the biggest changes in the stud’s history was made four years ago when Ian decided to move to poll merinos.
“We made this decision because in the future the industry won’t want horns. For example, OSH doesn’t like horns because of the injuries they cause at the works and neither do truck drivers or shepherds. In time there will be a huge difference for the price paid for polled sheep compared with horned sheep.”
Ian says polled sheep are also a lot earlier maturing and have a high fertility-- between 100-140% lambing at tailing. He has already seen demand for poll rams increase rapidly with every client this year buying polled as well as horned rams. Of the 85 rams sold last year, 15 were polled. This year Flaxton was unable to supply the demand for poll rams.
Another issue Flaxton is addressing is the wool buyer requirement for growers to stop mulesling.
“We have started breeding sheep that can easily be commercially farmed and are highly productive but don’t need mulesling. The heavy wrinkles will disappear. They will be a plainer bodied sheep and very uncomplicated.”
Ian is also ruthless on gene testing for foot rot and destroys any ewe found with active foot rot in summer. Subsequently Flaxton is one of the most foot rot-tolerant studs in the country—something he says his clients benefit from greatly. Because of this, new clients are now purchasing Flaxton rams and this year the stud was unable to meet demand.
“Some commercial clients have made large gains and cost savings with regards to foot rot. They save both time and money.”
The trend towards growers producing wool to meet buyer contract specifications has also been a major factor in Ian’s breeding decisions. Sheep are now bred to produce wool that is “fit for purpose”. Ewe wool is 17.5-20 microns with the emphasis on 18-19 microns.
In addition to the merino stud, Ian and his wife Trish also have a Dorset Down sheep stud, a commercial flock of Romney + Merino x Border Leicester ewes. They also farm 120 commercial Angus cows and sell 170 first cross Border Leicester rams a year.
Following the family tradition, they are keen on showing and are well known in the sheep shed at the Canterbury A&P Show. With their sons Mark and Bryce, for many years they consistently had 40 sheep of three breeds at the Show. They have won all the major titles at least once.
Ian is a strong advocate for showing because he says it demonstrates the absolute maximum production the animals can achieve. It is also a way of benchmarking against other breeders and clients get a buzz out from your success.
Flaxton has also been at the forefront of fleece competitions, enjoying success in Australia and winning the Supreme fleece prize at the world merino conference in 1998.
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