By Judy Barnet, Ag Columnist
What a busy week. As I write, we are just taking a break from photographing and videoing the lambs for our annual sale. It feels like I have picked the hottest day! Unfortunately, we couldn’t start the job as early as we would have liked as I had an MLA (Meat Livestock Australia) audit this morning. The audit went well, the auditor had a farm herself so had a complete understanding of farming and was super easy to get on with. I think these audits are a good thing. You are given plenty of notice and I took the opportunity to do a good clean up of my paperwork to make sure it was all well in order and to clean up and throw out any old vet medicines I had lying around that had long expired. I also cast a critical eye over the yards and outbuilding to make sure there were no old oil drums etc lying around.
Richie has got the tractor back in action, a temporary fix, and nearly finished slashing one paddock specifically for the sale lambs. They will get a haircut after their glamour shots and then reside in the slashed paddock until after the sale. Part of the reason for this is so they don’t pick up burrs and weed seed and carry it over to their new home. I mentioned last week I felt that they weren’t doing as well as I would have liked but after weighing and assessing they are pretty good on the whole despite a few runty looking specimens that won’t make the grade.
With sheep joining time only around six weeks away I realised I would need to purchase a new ram as my aged ram bit the dust a few weeks ago. A few years ago Richie and I went down to the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show. One breeder stood out by a country mile, due to the type of Southdowns he was exhibiting. They were very much in line with my medium-framed historic type of Southdown sheep, compared to the long-legged clean-faced modern type. Silk Southdowns are a family-run affair and their attention to detail and presentation of the sheep is absolutely first class. I contacted Simon. Unfortunately, he had sold all of his stud rams for the year, however, he did have a few that were currently being joined to his own ewes that may be available towards the end of April. We normally put our rams in on the first of April but for the Southdowns, we will delay this year if Simon has a ram available later in the month.
Some excellent news – we were able to get Vicky Shorthorn artificially inseminated last week. One down, three to go! My decision to persevere despite the costs and difficulties of my distance from the AI man was justified when I received this email from a cattle and sheep judge I had contacted about my sheep, including a couple of photos of the girls I thought he might like to see. He had this to say:
“Based on what I can observe in the two photos, those two Shorthorns are spectacular. They have excellent volume without being extreme frame, beautifully muscled whilst remaining feminine, ideal bone and appear to be structurally very correct, similar to some I’ve seen in a top herd in Iowa, USA.
“Your heifers could walk into any show ring and be very competitive, especially if they have a calf at foot.”
I have only been able to get out in the kayak once this week. I was out on the water around 5.45 am, just as the sun was starting to poke its smiling face up over the hill. It was absolutely still and beautiful and I managed to get a couple of photos. Dora Dog had to stay home much to her disgust. I had her desexed last week and she is not allowed near the water until the stitches come out. On top of that, she was not supposed to run around or jump for five to seven days after the op. We managed five days with a great deal of difficulty. Since then she has been unstoppable, however, she seems to be healing well.
In the cottage this week we had Paula and Derek, friends from back in my Clintonvale days. They came out at the same time last year for Derek’s birthday and decided to celebrate it with us again this year. We were honoured they chose to celebrate with us once again. Derek and Paula used to have a Hereford Stud and Derek is a gardener so we always have lots of talk about. I was pleased to show him the two Hereford heifers I brought from the Pig and Calf Sale last October. Drought forced them off the farm many years ago so seeing the heifers brought back memories that were bittersweet I think.
CJ has been going crazy on the rider mower and was delighted to find an old trailer to tow behind it lying in our piles of junk. I keep telling her there is a reason we never throw anything away on the farm!
A few years ago, the Rare Breeds Trust received a call asking for help in finding homes for one of Australia’s rarest breeds of sheep, a breed that originated in Australia, developed by the CSIRO. The Elliotdale breed, named after the research station, was a carpet wool sheep but with carpet being made overseas these days it had fallen out of favour. The RBTA struggled to get any takers for the sheep but such is her dedication that our Director and Coordinator of Sheep, Sue Curliss, bought what she could of the flock herself. Sue persevered with the breed and was able to get it accepted into the ASSBA Flock Book – no small feat. Here, Sue tells you a bit about the breed she brought back from the brink:
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The Elliottdale – Australia’s Own Specialty Carpet Wool Breed
The Elliottdale sheep was developed at the Elliott Research Station in Tasmania and is a dual-purpose sheep, although it was originally bred for speciality carpet wool. The rams should be polled and when mature, generally weigh around 80kg. The ewes are also polled and weigh in a little smaller at around 58kg.
The Elliottdale breed was founded using the main gene for fibre medullation called El, which was isolated from Romney stock, and bred into Romney ewes. The breed’s development began in 1967/68 when the late Mr Ron Sides identified a rare mutant gene that had the potential to produce speciality carpet wool. At each shearing, and due to the wool length, there are two per year, the sheep cut around 6.0 – 8.0kg of wool. The wool has a fibre diameter varying from 18 to 120 microns, the mean being about 42 microns. Staple length grows to about 300mm per annum, requiring two shearings per annum giving a long staple length of 120-150mm. The colour is dull, chalky white and the fleece is harsh to the handle. At least 30 per cent of the fibres are medullated or hollow, the quality giving resistance to compression in the pile, resistance to abrasion wear, and good appearance retention in the carpet.
The Elliottdale breed was commercialised in 1976 when the Australian Carpet Wool Industry was established. The effect of the Elliottdale gene (El) is similar to that of the Drysdale, Tukidale and to a lesser degree, the Carpetmaster (N series genes) in the Romney breed but is at a different locus on the chromosome. The El gene is semi-dominant, allowing homozygous lambs to be identified at birth, and unlike the other carpet wool breeds, is not associated with the gene for horns.
The Elliottdale Project was terminated in 1993 and the Research Station became a Dairy Research Facility. Mr Carl Terrey, a research worker and member of the Elliottdale Research team bought several of the sheep and continued to breed them. When the flock was at the Elliott Research Station it was performance recorded, and breeding indices were developed by geneticists for both wool and meat. Although Carl did not have the same resources as the Research Station, he continued to use traditional stud phenotypic selection, with an emphasis on conformation and carcass market suitability, as this is where the economics of the breeding enterprise is based today. Subjective selection for sound conformation is along traditional lines for dual-purpose breeds with emphasis on:
• Good prime lamb carcass conformation
• Capability for easy lambing and excellent mothering
• Uniform and dense coverage of best AAA quality carpet wool
• Soundness for easy care, particularly sound feet, dense staple, and open faces
I first became aware of the Elliottdale breed when I was serving as Sheep Coordinator for the Rare Breeds Trust of Australia, and we discovered the last remaining flock of this beautiful breed was sadly being dispersed due to Carl, the breeder’s, deteriorating health. We desperately tried to find some new owners for the flock but the lack of commercial value of carpet wool in Australia and the requirement of bi-annual shearing made the sale difficult. After several discussions with Carl, he decided to split the flock into breeding groups thus allowing people to purchase a smaller group and continue breeding them, with the emphasis on a Conservation flock rather than for commercial value. My research on the rare sheep breeds in Australia had made me very aware of the vulnerabilities of breeds and the fine line between survival and extinction and I didn’t want to see another breed lost, especially one developed in Australia, so we bought a breeding group of eighteen ewes and two rams. Two other breeders also bought breeding groups, and sadly the remaining flock went to market.
As the criteria for being classed as a rare breed includes having a Registry, I approached the Australian Stud Sheep Breeders Association to see if we could be included in their Register and they were very happy to welcome us as a breed. Last year, the Elliottdale was accepted into the ASSBA Stud Register, and we also developed our own Association – the Elliottdale Sheep Breeders Association.
Keeping a Conservation flock is always going to be a labour of love more than a commercial venture, but I couldn’t be happier with this beautiful breed of sheep. They are delightful to own – a great size, sensible, easy to handle and with the most beautiful fleece. There is nothing quite like seeing the flock running towards you on a windy day, with their locks flying behind them. It is obviously not the softest of fleeces, but fleece and wool should always be appreciated for its purpose, and the purpose of Elliottdale is carpet, so perfect wool for rugs and homewares as well. Those who have chosen to purchase Elliottdales from us, have been very happy with their choice and they quickly become a talking point in the paddock. They also make beautiful pets, with their gentle temperaments.
And the most important thing – a breed that Carl and many others put their lives into developing and maintaining is still with us and hopefully will be for many years to come.
