68 | MEAT & WOOL » Nithdale Station Closer look at genetics Nithdale has to offer Sharefarmers Russell and Philippa White on the sheep and beef unit. Richard Loader Last November Nithdale Station broke with tradition, hosting an on-farm sale of fortyseven of its elite Romney and Suftex sale two-tooth rams, with very pleasing results. Located 17 kilometres south east of Gore, Nithdale Station has been in the Tripp family since 1924, and is now owned and operated by Andrew and Heather Tripp. “We normally sell rams by private treaty with regular clients coming in to pick them, but last year sharefarmer Russell White and I made the decision to host an on-farm sale during an open day,” says Andrew. “We took videos of the rams, posted them online and ran a Helmsman auction using Yourbid, which is an online bidding platform developed by Meadowslea Angus and Sheep. People placed bids and counter bids during the course of the day and there were bids from buyers who had only seen the rams on the video.” Forty one of the total offering were sold on the day, fetching higher prices than they would normally have achieved by private treaty. Andrew says it was also a good way of increasing publicity into the genetics Nithdale has to offer and increasing sales. “We haven’t sold quite as many rams in total this year, but dollar-wise it will be similar to the previous season. We still have about fifty Suftex rams and one hundred Romney rams available. Index wise, Nithdale rams compare very well to rams available nationally. A lot of our Suftex rams are in the top ten percent with many of the Romney rams in the top twenty percent. So we’re up there in terms of genetic merit.” Andrew says one of the key points of difference is that Nithdale has been breeding for worm resistance for the last thirty years. “There are a lot of issues with drench resistance on farms now and one of the tools to combat that is to use rams that have resistance to internal parasites. Basically, you are reducing your reliance on drenches. The less we have to drench the rams the less they build up drench resistance. To me it’s a no brainer — if you’re going to buy rams, you want to buy them from breeders that are doing worm resistance.” Nithdale encompasses 1635 hectares, inclusive of a 275-hectare dairy platform and a lease block of 157ha. Fifty percent of the farm is uncultivatable moderate to steep hill country, with the remaining area flat to rolling. A diverse farming operation, Nithdale operates a sheep genetics and commercial sheep enterprise, beef breeding and finishing, forestry, dairy farm and a farmstay. Andrew and Heather converted the 275 hectares to dairy in 2008, at a time of low sheep returns and good dairy prices. With a contract milker looking after the dairy operation on a day-to-day basis, Nithdale now milk’s 850 cows, and the dairy operation forms an important part of the stations income. The station runs 5500 ewes, including 1900 recorded ewes, of which 1400 are Romneys and 500 are Suftex. “Our base breed for maternal ewes is Romney Texel. They are twenty percent Texel and eighty percent Romney and look Romney. In 2005 we started putting a Texel across the Romneys and that was when the gene test for the MyoMax gene was available — that’s the muscling gene from the Texel. We just wanted to improve meat yields and by testing the progeny we were able to keep crossing back to a Romney but retain that gene. So we have improved meat yields quite a bit.” In 2014, Nithdale bought the Wairaki Romney Stud off Richard and Trudy Slee, enabling the business to have a straight Romney flock again. More recently Nithdale has been dabbling with Perendale, breeding some Romdales. “We’ve had a few clients who want that Romney / Perendale cross. Our terminal stud are just Suftex. They were all Suffolk and we put Texel all over them and developed a cross bred sheep that is 60% Suffolk.” The station also runs 3600 commercial ewes, based on the maternal breed—a Romney Texel cross. “The recorded ewes are generally run with the commercial ewes for a good part of the year and we draught them off at mating time and mate them separately. We lamb them separately because we DNA test the lambs and that gives us the parentage plus major genes like MyoMax and the whole flock’s genomics.” Proudly supporting Nithdale Station Peter Chisholm 027 433 8943 • cmcadmin@xtra.co.nz Leigh McHaffie 027 454 5139 | Manager 027 770 4182 Office Administration 03 208 5585 Hours Mon - Thur 9am -12pm PETER CHISHOLM Mobile: 027 433 8943 Email: peterchisholm@xtra.co.nz LEIGH MCH Mobile: 027 454 5139 CULTIVATION Ploughing Discing Power Harrowing Cultivator Mole Ploughing Ripping BALING Mowing Mower Conditioner Tedding Raking Small Square baling Round baling – with variable chamber balers Baleage Combination baler Individual wrapper Tube Wrapper CARTAGE ON FARM USING TRACTOR TRAILERS CONTACT: CMC C NTRACTING CAN OFFER: SEEDING Fodder Beat precision sowing Direct Drill with rubber tyred roller Grass roller drill Heva 6m roller seeder Power harrow ridger combination DIGGER PETER CHISHOLM Mobile: 027 433 8943 Email: peterchisholm@xtra.co.nz LEIGH MCH M bile: 027 454 5139 CULTIVATION Ploughing Discing Powe Harrowing Cultiv tor Mole Ploughing Ripping BALING Mowing Mower Conditio er Tedding Raking Small Square baling Round baling – with variable chamber balers Baleag Combination baler I dividual wrapper Tube Wrapper CARTAGE ON FARM USING TRACTOR TRAILERS CONTACT: CMC CONTRACTING CAN OFFER: SEEDING Fodder Beat precision sowing Direct Drill with rubber tyred roller Grass roller drill Heva 6m roller seeder Power harrow ridger combination DIGGER 03 208 4797 office@mgmauto.co.nz www.mgmauto.co.nz • Mazda Parts & Service • Warrant of Fitness • Breakdown Service • Ironman 4x4 Suppliers • MTA SERVICES
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