| 55 RURAL PEOPLE » Puketotara Stud Clevedon, the two studs could make faster genetic progress benefiting from the larger gene pool with a 550-600 ewe flock between both studs. “We have largely had to become a closed flock because if we used outside sires it would have diluted any progress we made,” says Ken “But having a closed flock has its own challenges because we have to be careful we don’t get our blood lines too close.” FE testing is undertaken through AgResearch using Ramguard. The toxin in the spores that affect They had to make sacrifices initially to get the FE tolerance ball rolling. Contact Corey Prouting 38 McDonald Road, Levin 5571 027 304 6414 coreyprouting@gmail.com Contact Gilbert Timms 62 Pretoria Road, Shannon 4474 06 362 7829 ashbystud@xtra.co.nz For your ram requirements including Southdown, Perendales and Cheviots Rams are available for viewing on farm from November the sheep are grown in the lab, then the resulting liquid is used by Cliff and Ken to dose their sheep so they can measure an enzyme in the blood that shows if the sheep is susceptible or tolerant to facial eczema so breeding decisions can be made. He acknowledges that they have had to make sacrifices with muscling and growth traits initially to get the FE tolerance ball rolling but are now able to create a balance between all the traits. The studs have made good progress and have some rams tolerant to .3 milligrams. He says more terminal breeders are starting to go down the same track, indication that there are distinct benefits. “We’re trying to breed a ram that offers our clients animal health benefits so they can get better survival and growth out of their lambs than by using industry average rams. I’d like to get our terminal flock to the same stage as our maternal flock where FE is a problem of the past.” The studs also use the CARLA saliva test, which measures parasite immunity in sheep. CARLA antibodies are produced by the sheep’s immune system in response to larval challenge. Preventing establishment gives sheep protection from incoming parasite larvae. They have also started measuring intramuscular fat (IMF) to improve the meat eating quality of the progeny from their rams. Puketotara Poll Dorset Stud and Coastlands Poll Dorsets sell rams on farm from mid November to February/March each year. “Nationwide both Puketotara Poll Dorset Stud and Coastlands Poll Dorsets flocks have quite high genetic merit. We think we’ve got a pretty unique couple of flocks.” As the facial eczema problem has worsened for farmers, their increasingly FE tolerant rams have become more popular.
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