| 9 RURAL PEOPLE » Glendryneoch Wiltshires Flock wasn’t always made up of shedding sheep He began switching from Perendales to Wiltshires over the course of three years. Kim Bowden On 700 hectares in the Hinakura Valley, east of Martinborough, Nick and Harriet Diederich run Glendryneoch Wiltshires, a flock of Wiltshire ewes - a breed renowned for its ability to naturally shed its own wool. The sheep carry a short winter coat - anything from 2.5 to six centimetres long - before shedding it in spring. Nick runs 1000 Wiltshire ewes on his family’s steep hill-country property, and this season will lamb 200 recorded stud ewes and hoggets. The flock wasn’t always made up of shedding sheep. He began switching from Perendales to Wiltshires over the course of three years, selling Perendale ewes and ewe lambs while introducing full-shedding genetics into the flock. Two key factors drove the change. One was the declining value of wool. The financial reality of producing strong wool became increasingly hard to justify. The second driver was workload. At the time he was also running 100 beehives, and the busiest periods for both enterprises fell through spring, summer and autumn. “Everything was clashing,” he says. The move to shedding sheep significantly reduced the amount of work required. “General consensus from people who are running full-shedding flocks is sort of 60 to 80 percent less work.” Today, Nick’s focus is on breeding productive, fertile, easy-care sheep that can adapt to any type of country. Selection centres on fertility, growth rates, structural soundness and full shedding ability. Lamb growth is a particular focus, with Nick aiming to get lambs to 40 kilograms as quickly as possible. The hill-country environment also plays a key role in the breeding programme. It acts as a natural selection tool, ensuring only resilient and adaptable animals remain in the flock. “We farm very hard, steep hill country here, and you find that sheep from tougher country will shift to easier country very well, whereas if you take sheep from easy flat land country and put them on our property, they’ll struggle,” he says. While Wiltshires are marketed as a low-input sheep, a significant amount of data sits behind the stud operation. Because the property is too extensive to record every lamb at birth, Nick DNA-tests his recorded stock at docking and enters the performance data into Sheep Improvement Limited (SIL), the national database used to compare production traits across flocks and breeds. He also uses saliva tests (CARLA) to monitor worm resistance. “You can look at a sheep and you might have an idea about it, but if you haven’t got the data to back it up...it helps us make a better-informed decision – and also our clients can make better informed For all your agricultural requirements. Spraying, cultivations, direct drilling, baling and grain harvesting. 317 Ruakokoputuna Rd, Martinborough 027 405 9887 M Proud tosupport GlendryneochWiltshires Experienced digger operators specialising in farm work. Services include tracks, dams, drainage, farmmaintenance, horsearenas&siteprep. Shed costs and workload We select for: • Muscle • Fertility • Shedding • Growth rate • Structural soundness • DNA profiled • SIL Nick Diederich 027 356 1705 Email: glendryneoch@gmail.com Enquiries and inspection welcome. decisions when they come to purchase our rams,” he says. This data driven approach is helping to build a strong reputation for Glendryneoch Wiltshires. The stud will have 50 two-tooth rams available this season through private treaty, with buyers coming from across the North Island. “Originally I started breeding rams for myself, because there wasn’t a lot of choice and there weren’t a lot of shedding sheep around.” he says. The stud has grown through repeat customers and word-of-mouth recommendations.
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