| 25 Developing Coopworth flock since 74’ The farm climbs from 130 metres above sea-level at the house, to 500 metres. Virginia Wright Travis Carter came back to the King Country farm he grew up on in 2014 and was joined by his partner Julie from Canada two years later. He was nine months old when his parents Robert and Suzanne bought the farm in 1988, located 30 kilometres southwest of Taumarunui in a small protected valley that drains directly into the Whanganui River. Its 330 ha (290 ha effective) are classed as steep hill country as the farm climbs from 130 metres above sea-level at the house, to 500 metres. It’s those natural features, combining the lowlying sheltered valley with the surrounding terrain, that the Carters have worked to their advantage ,while collaborating with the other Coopworth Genetics breeders to develop their Coopworth flock since it started in 1974. “We’re quite steep here, quite a hard land, and being that low means it’s usually quite significant for facial eczema and fly-strike and all the other health issues we typically want to avoid,” says Travis. To deal with it, very simply as Travis says, they cull, and they have been culling for generations of sheep. “The flock’s been recorded in SIL (Sheep Improvement Limited) since its inception, then in 1992 we got hit badly with facial eczema and since then we’ve been seriously on the path of making the flock as facial eczema proof as possible.” The combination of culling and testing at a five-star gold Facial Eczema accreditation level means it takes a particularly bad year for their flock to be adversely affected, but as Travis says they’re not immune, which is why the ongoing testing is important. “Genetics isn’t a black and white thing, so you can have an FE tolerant flock but you might have an animal that doesn’t express the trait as well as the others, or significant variation of fungal density within a paddock so we’re testing at higher and higher levels to be able to select the best animals each year. We annually FE test at minimum 10% of our rams, along with natural challenge blood testing during peak FE season. The results help us decide which ones are the best of the best to keep, and which ones to cull. They pride themselves on the amount of measuring and recording they do and always have done with 150 recorded ewes running in their 1200 strong commercial flock. Their approach since the Coopworths first arrived on the farm can best be summarised as a push for RURAL PEOPLE » Kirikau Coopworths growth and meat production, under duress, with minimal animal health inputs. Thanks to 20 years of culling for flystrike they haven’t dipped a ewe for the last 10 years, or a lamb for the last three. The traits in their progeny analysis include growth to weaning, growth with parasite burden (WormFEC), dag scores, meat yield, and reproduction while trying to maintain a moderate sized efficient ewe. Lately they’ve included measuring tail length and bareness to start working towards a future that doesn’t require docking, as they feel this may go the way that calf disbudding has. For the past 2 years they have also been recording the methane output of the ewe and ram hoggets through the use of the Agresearch PAC trailer. It’s only in its infancy but the process of selecting low methane/high feed conversion efficient sheep is a start and shows farmers commitment to climate change regardless of policy. The Kirikau Coopworth recorded flock is still called The Poplars (the name of the farm) on SIL although that should soon catch up with the rebranding that happened two years ago. That’s when the Carter family decided they needed to get a return for all the time and money spent measuring and recording, which has been feeding into their commercial flock and informing the selection of their stud animals for so many years. They created the Kirikau Coopworths brand (the farm address is 136 Kirikau Road) and moved from private ‘word of mouth’ sales to the annual auction at the Te Kuiti Saleyards. “As a family we enjoy the process of breeding and we’ve been producing rams that can thrive in our conditions for years. Now we want to make it more of a going concern.” Anyone wanting to buy one of these high-performing animals will find them at the Te Kuiti saleyards on November the 16th. Julie and Travis Carter.
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