36 | Romani making the most of every head Romani Farm is a breeding and finishing operation with 8000 stock units running around 60% sheep and 40% cattle. Virginia Wright RURAL PEOPLE » Romani Farms Ltd At Romani Farms Coopworth tolerant, high growth, meaty, quality wool, robust Coopworth genetics. • Fully SIL recorded under true commercial conditions. • Selected for top growth and muscling, less dags, parasite tolerance, minimal drench. Not dipped since 2013. Competition Large Flock Award. 2018 winner Coopworth section. • NZ Sheep Industry Awards Maternal Trait Leader Parasite Resistance. • Romani Sires are consistently top performers in the B+LNZ Low In-put Progeny Test. romani@farmside.co.nz 07 895 7144 www.romanicoopworths.co.nz • Romani commercial hoggets winner of 2017 NZ Ewe Hogget The 660 effective hectare mix of owned and leased, medium hill country which makes up Romani Farms is run by Ross and Ruth Richards. In Taumarunui, with a view across the paddocks to Mt. Ruapehu the climate and soil reflect its locality. “Taumarunui roughly translates to “place of abundant shelter” so apparently we are now officially the least windy place in New Zealand,” says Ross. What that means in practicality is that they don’t dry out too much with wind in summer but they can be frosty in the winter. Their underlying soil is ancient seabed which then got a layer of pumice when Taupo erupted some 1800 years ago. While the old naturally fertile seabed which holds onto moisture may be wet in the winter it has its benefits in summer, and is balanced by the pumice which remains dry in the winter but can dry out very quickly in summer if they don’t get regular rain. Romani Farm is a breeding and finishing operation with 8000 stock units running around 60% sheep and 40% cattle. The cow herd is carefully managed to make the most of every head of cattle whether born on farm or bought in as one of 50 Friesian- Angus heifer calves. They’re mated as yearlings, along with the farm born heifers, to a low-birth-weight Angus bull then kept in their terminal herd and mated to a South Devon terminal sire thereafter. As half-Friesians they rear a bigger, faster growing calf. Their farm-born quarter-Friesian are fattened once their calves have weaned and sent to the works according to the ‘once-bred heifer system’; their yearling brothers have been finished and sent before their second winter. “The net result is that roughly speaking we have 150 cows but we finish around 300 cattle a year and only buy in those 50 calves and around six sire bulls a year,” says Ross. Little is left to chance on Romani Farms. With 12.5 kms of fencing under time pressure to be completed, Ross’s focus on breeding sheep that don’t need ‘mollycoddling’ is paying off. “The project involves fencing, planting and pest control and being reimbursed 50% of the cost is too good an opportunity to pass up. We’ve been breeding for sheep that need less time spent on them, so worm tolerant, eczema tolerant, flystrike tolerant, and that has paid dividends,” explains Ross. For the last few years they’ve also been measuring tail length at docking in order to breed for shorter tails. This year’s crop of lambs differs from previous in that their fathers were selected from the top 5% - 10% for dag score along with top body condition score, and Ross awaits the results with mixed feelings. “I will kick myself for ever if the difference between this year’s lambs and last year’s lambs is all genetic, but we’ve hardly dagged a lamb all summer,” he says in mock disgust, “so why didn’t I make the decision to focus more strongly on dag-score 20 years ago! We’ve realised that if they don’t get dags the length of the tail is less important, although still nice if it’s short, it’s more about whether its clean.” Given all of that, for anyone wanting their sheep to be on the low side of time-intensive farming, while being confident that all the basics like growth and meat yield and so on are in the biological optimum range, Romani Farms will have rams for sale from both their Coopworth and their Wiltshire Studs in November as usual. Wednesday 25th September 2024@2:00pm YEARLINGBULL SALE Sire of a number of this years bulls
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