18 | Australia Invades New Zealand Farm Felix, Sarah, Cruise, Kaiza and Knox Hamilton and Murray Jackson. Kupe homestead is over 100 years old. White triplets caught by a drone. Felix Hamilton, Sarah Hamilton, Cruise Hamilton, Kaiza Hamilton, Knox Hamilton, Murray Jackson. Tracey Edwardes RURAL PEOPLE » Te Kupe Station www.taranaki-vets.co.nz Clinics - Stratford · · Manaia Hawera Patea · · Waverley Proud to support Te Kupe Station An invasion of around 500 ultra-white hairy lambs were born this spring on Te Kupe Station in Eastern Taranaki - foreigners, from Australia. The non-shearing sheep were sired by the progeny of embryo transfer from Tattykeel Australian White Stud in NSW. Sheep farmer Murray Jackson, disaffected by the wool industry, experimented with the Australian White breed. Their coarse-hair coat needs no shearing, dagging, crutching, fly-strike prevention, or docking. He says on any economical sheep farm, those jobs often are half the labour cost or $50,000 annually, equal to 330 lambs. Like many sheep farmers, who average around 60yrs, Murray is not so enthusiastic about unnecessary sheep handling on his 400ha. The AW breed developed in Graeme Gilmore’s original PollDorset and Texel studs, combines genes from White Dorper and Van Rooy studs, producing high-yielding, fast-growing lambs, finishing at 2426Kg CW at 4-5months. Following 2008’s first release of TattyKeel Australian Whites, the breed became a phenomenon, with around 150 registered Australian studs auctioning rams up to $165,000 AUD. Murray and son Cruise Hamilton have joined AW rams with Easycare, (Morrison Composite), and Wiltshire (mostly Glenbrae type) ewes and hoggets. Set stocked at 7.2 Ewe/Ha on Kupe’s steep hills, ewes have docked 153% lambs, averaging 10kg at 37 days following lambing’s due start date, projected to reach 45Kg LW by 110 days. “Although raining almost everyday of lambing, there were minimal birth losses. They’re born with very thick skin, and a dense hair coat”. He says with Kupe’s 2700mm average annual rainfall, concern is they might develop feet problems in soft, constantly wet soil and grass. South Australia stud breeders rigorously select sheep with feet resilience, calls for more embryo transfer imports like these. Other sheep challenges at Kupe are occasional extreme FE spore count spikes, and on-farm drench resistance. Other Australian White favoured traits include polyestrous ewes. Most AW farms lamb at six or eight month intervals with around 75% of ewes reliably littering at consecutive lambings, reducing the more-lambs-per-litter need. The breed’s superior eating reputation, similarly with wagyu cattle, comes from the intra-muscular fat and low melting point. Most AW farmers market this, exporting through their brand, Margra Lamb, and its processor network. With many hair-sheep breeds farmed worldwide, Murray believes they might eventually disrupt our coarse wool industry, if feet issues are overcome. “Comparing lamb growth rates, and carcass yields, with local wooled sheep is like comparing the acceleration of a top fuel drag racer with a family saloon!” In the Jackson family for 100 years, Te Kupe Station also farms 1200 Romney ewes, (Bendall Genetics), finishing all lambs to slaughter, and 90 Angus cows, (Mangaotea Genetics) with two-yearold bulls sold as service bulls, and non-replacement heifers sold for live export. 70% of kupe’s boundary is deeply incised gorges with 30m sheer cliffs, falling into the Markino Stream. Many dividing tributaries sheer walls from .5-2m apart and 10-20m deep, are fenced off for 51ha pine woodlots, and 49ha native bush. Te Kupe Station is selling AW X Wiltshire and AW X Easycare hogget rams in January for anyone wanting to experiment. After trying as a terminal sire, after observation, farmers might retain ewe hoggets as maternals. Contact tekupestation@gmail.com or phone 0277219139 or 06762861 See more at www.Australianwhitescom.au Youtube: Flaxley Australian White Sheep:The Series. PGG Wrightson livestock -Helping grow the country All the best to Te Kupe Station Warren caskey 0274321384 | Shaun Rowe 0272951497 Servicing Stratford and eastern Taranaki districts
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