164 rams offered and 164 sold – one of the few Western Australian merino studs to achieve full clearance this year in a sheep market that remains subdued.
The top priced ram sold for $6000 and headed to the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) farm at Katanning WA.
Keren Muthsam, Development Officer at DPIRD said they have “been using Anderson rams for the past two years and have seen a rapid improvement in the flock.”
Meat and Livestock video profile: It was great to host the MLA team as they filmed this video! Take a look at the polished results of their work. Feel free to contact us about any aspect of this video.
Last year’s ewe lambs are lambing now, at 12 months of age. We didn’t scan them for triplets so there are some special surprises in the paddock.
We are pleased to announce that ANDERSON 160729 has been sold to Mumblebone Merinos in NSW for $30 000.
160729 is a trait leader (top 5%) for CFW, breech wrinkle, worm resistance, and top 10% for low dags – all great traits to cease mulesing without losing production. He is also in the top 1% for post weaning weight and top 10% for YFAT. A magnificent all-rounder.
We have just spent 2 days classing up the young rams before shearing. There are some exciting quality wools on great carcasses in this 2019 drop.
Anderson Rams has proven to breed highly worm resistant progeny in South America but Uruguay has more than three times the rainfall of SW Western Australia so how do our sheep compare for wool quality and other visual traits?
Exceptionally well, as the results of two trials show. See a summary of results here.
An Anderson sired ram has set an all-time Falkland Islands sale record of 870 pounds. He was sired by Anderson-120103 in the National Stud Flock.
Robustness and worm resistance combined with productive wool works well across some very different environments.
Some people say that if Merinos have great eye muscle and fat carcass traits then their wool will deteriorate quite rapidly in cut and quality as they age. I don’t see this in our flock where we have been selecting for carcass traits as well as wool cut for decades.
Yesterday we started shearing and this ewe came through in the first mob. She is 9 1/2 years old, still maintaining condition in the paddock at our high stocking rates, as well as cutting 4.5kg of stylish white fleece. And still having lambs.
Robust, productive, easy care and fertile.
Stud principal Lynley Anderson was humbled to receive the Syngenta Growth Award for productivity in Canberra, December 2018.
The Growth Awards acknowledge and celebrate innovation, best practice, and leadership in agriculture, and the Productivity (Grower) award recognises farmers who are achieving productivity with a focus on long-term sustainability.
170660 is a well balanced ram with exceptional breeding values in production traits as well as being highly worm resistant. He is structurally correct with bold crimping white wool. A heavy wool cutter on a plain body he will be a big impact sire.
I was persuaded to sell him to Kerin Poll for $20 000 and he will reside there in NSW. Semen rights are retained by Anderson Rams except for in NSW.
Anderson Rams (also referred to as Anderson Poll) has progeny in the New England Sire Evaluation and Stud principle Lynley Anderson attended their recent field day in early July. ANDERSON 120096 was tested in this comparison of the progeny of 16 bloodlines which included two other stud sires who have an Anderson ram as a grand-sire. This highlights the importance placed on worm resistance in this area.
Some progeny groups, including Anderson, were not able to be displayed due to a delay in receiving DNA test results, but luckily there were a couple of Anderson hoggets that had been identified by pedigree matchmaker.
Many thanks to Kim Barnet, Todd Whillock, Duncan Lance and Lachlan Fulloon for the warm welcome, showing me your sheep, and helping me to gain an understanding of sheep production in the New England area.
Stud Prinicpal Lynley recently returned from a trip to the World Merino Conference in Uruguay and caught up with some Anderson progeny while she was there. Parts of Uruguay get up to 2000mm of rain annually which is conducive to high worm burdens and are they are using Anderson genetics to enhance their breeding of sheep that are resistant to intestinal parasites.
In 2018 we participated in a trial with Murdoch University to see how well movement sensors can match up a ewe and her lambs in order to record pedigree. This year we used similar sensors from AWI and are involved in trials investigating fetal losses between scanning and lambing, and another looking at the incidence of triplets in a flock and how they can be best managed.
