54 | Interest in FE tolerant rams growing Puketotara Poll Dorset Stud owner Ken Haywood says they can clearly see the benefits of FE tolerance in their romney stud in terms of performance, growth and survival, which they are also starting to see now in their poll dorset flock. Karen Phelps When Puketotara Poll Dorset Stud and Coastlands Poll Dorsets started facial eczema (FE) testing their terminal sire breeding operations in 2015 there was not much interest from purchasers, says owner of Puketotara Poll Dorset Stud Ken Haywood. But over subsequent years, as the facial eczema problem has worsened for farmers, their increasingly FE tolerant rams have become more and more popular. It’s a good example of the kind of forward thinking that good breeders have to have in order to anticipate future industry demand. “As climate change intensifies we’re seeing FE crop up in parts of New Zealand that it hasn’t been previously. Now it’s becoming an issue in almost all of the North Island,” says Ken. Ken and wife Rebecca farm 441ha total/272ha effective in the King Country. They run 1450 ewes of which 370 are poll dorset, 100 black face composite, 350 recorded romney stud ewes which are also on SIL and FE tested up to FE Gold level and the remainder commercial romneys. They also have 500 ewe hoggets, 260 ram hoggets, 150 yearling cattle and 45 two-year-old cattle. All cattle are steers and bulls for either trade or fattening. Ken says they can clearly see the benefits of FE tolerance in their romney stud in terms of performance, growth and survival, which they are also starting to see now in their poll dorset flock. They were prompted to focus on FE tolerance in the poll dorsets as the flock increased in size and dosing them with zinc to combat the problem was becoming time consuming and expensive. By working with Coastlands Poll Dorsets in Kawakawa Bay, RURAL PEOPLE » Puketotara Stud Ken and wife Rebecca farm 441ha total/272ha effective in the King Country.
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