50 | Kerry Hills ‘a good doer’ Eyeing fine wool market Sue Russell Rosa Watson Belmont Station extends over 950ha at Cave, some 23km north-west of Timaru. Of that footprint, 130ha is a leased block next door. The farm is owned by Chris and Annabelle Hampton and is home to Waterton Stud, made up of three breeds, along with 2,700 commercial ewes, 130 Angus breeding cows and more recently the addition of daughter Elizabeth’s ‘Kerry Hills’ sheep stud. Elizabeth is passionate about the breed that originates from Wales. Apart from their unusual cute markings, the sheep are good doers, ticking the boxes for both meat and functionality. A hundred or so years ago, in Wales, Kerry Hills was a dominant commercial breed, however numbers have been declining since the latter part of last century. This, however has been balanced by the breed coming into vogue and this is what spurred Elizabeth to establish her own stud here. “I first saw them online on a UK farm facebook page in 2018. I thought they were really cool. My family has always had stud sheep, so I went over to the UK in 2019 where I worked for an embryo and AI facility and where the AI centre is based is the home region of the Kerry Hill, so it just fell into place,” Elizabeth says. Enthused by what she saw, plans were put into place to prepare some perendale ewes for receiving Kerry Hill embryos, a process that begins about three weeks prior to the ewe being implanted with the embryo imported in frozen form. “In terms of survival, 70% is a good take. I had 60 embryos and of that number 50% held, so I was pleased.” Kerry Hill originate from Welsh border land, similar conditions to where many of our sheep are raised, says Elizabeth. To add more genetics into the foundation of the stud Elizabeth repeated embryo implants in 2023, with similar results. “This time I mated some of the hoggets and lambed as well. I’m very pleased with the progeny with exceptional markings and given their very distinct quirky look there’s interest Five years on from introducing SX fine wool rams to his Corriedale ewe flock, Mid Canterbury farmer David Bell is seeing huge benefits. Ardamine Farms is a third-generation family farm located in Dorie, just south of the Rakaia River mouth. David took over running the operation eight years ago following the death of his father, Ian. The Corriedale ewe flock was originally started by his grandfather, Ray, but David was struggling to make gains in performance with the Corriedales and wanted to try something different, with a focus on increasing production and reducing labour input. “I was getting frustrated with the Corriedales,” he says. “I felt that the science and technology available to the sheep industry weren’t being utilised by Corriedale breeders.” “We could see our input costs rising and knew that we had to make some changes to make sure the sheep would continue to pay their way.” Wanting to shift to a different breed without sacrificing the 26-micron wool that previous generations had created proved challenging. “The wool cheque has historically been an important part of our margin, and I was keen to see if I could at the very least retain this value while improving the other traits.” After reading an article about a breakthrough in footrot resistance, he contacted Dr Mark Ferguson at neXtgen Agri - a Christchurch-based genetics consulting business. Together, they settled on quarter-bred rams known as SX fine wool that offered the combination of wool quality, low-input traits, and footrot resistance he was looking for. “He suggested SX fine wool would be a good fit,” David says. “One of the unexpected and exciting parts of the change was the amount of information I had available to select my rams, particularly around labour-saving traits of footrot, worms and dags.” The fine-wool industry in New Zealand has taken big steps towards the use of breeding values and transparent genetic evaluation and reporting, enabling producers like David to make decisions based on all aspects of the sheep, not just the production parameters. And it’s already paying off. Wool quality has RURAL PEOPLE » Belmont Station / David Bell growing. We’ve just been accepted into the sheep breeders flock book, which is another important step towards establishing a full stud. I’m very lucky to have great people around me on this journey.” And while Elizabeth is the first to admit their good looks make them really appealing she emphasises the fact that Kerry Hill’s are a purpose-built breed. “They’re a hardy breed that have been forced to survive. They act so different from other sheep, almost snobby! You know they are watching you,” Elizabeth says. Today the stud has 30+ animals on the ground working through the process of becoming pedigree. Elizabeth’s focus is to build on numbers, given there’s more demand for the progeny than current supply allows. “I can now more confidently part with ewe lambs to people interested in building their own flock and that’s a good place to get to so quickly.” Waterton sheep stud comprises three breeds – Suffolk, South Suffolk and Charollais with rams sold annually on-farm. Elizabeth’s Kerry Hill sheep are kept together with all the other stud animals. Beyond tending to the stud and commercial sheep Elizabeth finds time to help at an organisational level as secretary of the Northern South Island Suffolk Breeders Club. She’s recently visited Australia, attending the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show. “In that country they’re working hard to attract young people into the sheep sector so I’m helping here for us to do our bit as well.” Coming up is the Christchurch Royal A & P show, scheduled for the second week of November, an event Elizabeth is looking forward to very much. “I’ll be taking some Kerry’s along to show. I’m sure there will be a lot of interest in this very special breed and it’s a way of getting more exposure for the breed and my stud.” Kerry Hill rams will be put up for sale at the on-farm auction planned for 16 December. Elizabeth says anyone interested in looking at what will be available can do so by viewing her facebook page. “I think there will be about 10 rams for sale and I’m looking forward to seeing how the market responds. improved with a drop in micron, but the main benefit has been animal health. “We needed to be able to combat these challenges using EBVs,” David explains. “We couldn’t select Corriedale rams for low-input and footrot EBVs, but we could select them using the Lincoln Footrot Gene-Marker Test. “We always chose Corriedale rams with a 1,1 foot score, and I believe that helped in the early stages, 20-odd years ago. “But I think it had reached its potential in our flock. With our farm being irrigated, we were still getting quite a bit of footrot pressure.” Since using the Footrot EBV to select his SX rams, footrot has improved to the point where he no longer needs to trough the flock, only treating individual cases as they appear. “We’ve seen huge gains in animal health.” Ardamine has also shifted its annual shearing date from before Christmas to May, which has proved beneficial. “We’re trying to minimise tenderness or breaks in the wool and improve colour,” David says. “By changing the shearing date, hopefully we’ll have improved our wool quality to be a better fit for NZ Merino markets. The reason we went for SX fine wool was we didn’t want to lose wool quality by changing to a crossbreed.” Currently, Ardamine wool is sold at auction in Melbourne, but as new generations of ewes produce a finer product, David hopes to secure a contract with New Zealand Merino Company. The wool is now averaging 23 microns, and the goal is to go as fine as possible without compromising other traits. Ewes and lambs are run over 150 hectares of pasture, split into two mobs, including a terminal mob mated to Suffolk and White Suffolk rams. “We have recently been trialling White Suffolk rams, a breed developed in Australia, and we are seeing good results with them, they have low birth weight and high growth,” David says. The operation also runs up to 500 dairy heifers, 250 calves and 250 rising two-year-olds, mainly on a 60-hectare block. Cropping includes 45 hectares of barley, 15 hectares of sweetcorn, 25 hectares of processing peas, and 10 hectares of maize. To find out more about Ardamine Farms, check out their website: www.ardaminefarms.co.nz or follow them on Facebook and Instagram. “You cannot beat NZ Wool it is naturally grown from grass” Main West Coast Road, Yaldhurst, RD 6, Christchurch 7676, New Zealand Phone: 027-432-4353 Email: ywlwool@nzwool.com Web: www.nzwool.com BOAGS CONTRACTING 8 Rolleston Street, Rakaia Mark 0274 383 846 e. boag.bros@xtra.co.nz C O N T R A C T I N G WE ARE A SPREADMARK ACCREDITED COMPANY Elizabeth is passionate about the breed. Ben Doubleday Photography.
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