Hazeldean - Merino Sire Evaluation

Australian pastoral enterprise owned and operated by five generations of the James Litchfield family since 1865.

HAZELDEAN MERINOS
Sire Evaluations


Benchmarking Hazeldean's philosophy is to demonstrate accurately the genetic superiority of its stock relative to an accurate industry standard. The establishment of Sheep Genetics Australia, Merino Benchmark and Central Test Sire Evaluation is very much in keeping with Hazeldean's ethos and the stud actively participates in these programs. Progeny Testing There is no substitute for the pudding if you want proof! The best looking and best performing ram is completely useless if he doesn't produce progeny either equal to, or better than himself. The only way to tell whether a ram is breeding well is to undertake a progeny test and assess all his offspring for the traits that matter most to your breeding goals. That is the basis of all accurate genetic evaluation programs. Sheep Genetics Australia Hazeldean is committed to across flock comparison and is a founding member of Sheep Genetics Australia, the equivalent of Group Breedplan in the beef industry. SGA allows an individual rams' Australian Sheep Breeding Value (ASBV's) to be directly compared to rams in other member flocks entered in SGA throughout Australia. Find out more about Sheep Genetics Australia.. www.sheepgenetics.org.au/merinoselect Merinos to Match Hazeldean is one of the participating studs in the 'Merinos to Match' project which has been developed by the Department of Primary Industries with the Victorian Stud Merino Sheep Breeders Association. The aim is to evaluate a number of studs in sites around Victoria for traits that are important to producers. The guidelines for doing this have been developed to ensure that this trial is credible and fairly evaluates the studs represented..... merinos to match website www.dpi.vic.gov.au/DPI/nrenfa.nsf/fid/25F84CC9BE6693F1CA25724A007EE750 Central Test Sire Evaluation As a means of establishing the standard of Hazeldean's sires relative to the rest of the industry, we have entered many of our stud sires in Central Test Sire Evaluation in every state. For details of rams entered by Hazeldean go to Merino Superior Sires: CSIRO'swebsite http://mss.anprod.csiro.au/ Sire evaluation schemes compare the genetic merit of a number of Merino rams from various studs by comparing each sire's offspring side by side after they have been reared under identical pasture and environmental conditions. Sire evaluation schemes identify individual rams with the genetic capacity to sire superior Merino sheep. All sire evaluation schemes throughout Australia and New Zealand are linked together by rams that are used in more than one scheme. Linking allows comparisons to be made between sires that have been progeny-tested in different areas, and in different years. The wool industry must identify and make more extensive use of its elite rams so genetic gains can be maximized. Hazeldean has been involved in Sire Evaluations since their inception more than 15 years ago. Hazeldean sires have always performed at or near the top of every sire evaluation. Central Test Sire Evaluations involve Stud breeders entering rams that are mated to an equal allocation of ewes. Their progeny are assessed for their performance, both measured and visual. The major measured traits (GFW, CFW, FD, BWT, CV, Yield, Staple Length, and FEC) are expressed as an Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBV's) This is the expected performance of a sire relative to another sire in the evaluation when mated to the same standard of ewes. Hazeldean Merinos unparalled performance. Hazeldean rams have been independently tested longer and more often than any other stud in Australia. Hazeldean regularly comes at or near the top of every sire evaluation in which it has a ram entered.
Wether Trials Increasingly, wether trial data is seen as one of the main sources of information when selecting a bloodline to use in wool production enterprises. It is certainly a positive development when compared to many other so called indicators of profitability however wether trial data needs to be used carefully as part of a thorough and overall analysis and not simply taken on its own. Although we support all objective assessment including wether trials, many years ago we made a decision not to enter trials with wethers from our own commercial flock. We did this because we believed it was important that trial data was generated from our clients flocks, not our own, and we continue to encourage clients to enter. We saw, and still see, some danger in results being biased if information is generated largely from a ‘stud’ commercial flock and not from clients of that stud. There can be significant differences between flocks of the same bloodline and this is evident in the results between our own clients where, although they invariably all perform above average, show a marked difference in returns from highest to lowest . ‘Stud’ produced wethers can be significantly higher again and therefore the more teams a particular stud enters the higher its ranking becomes. In fact, because wether trial data has become such a significant marketing tool for studs, some less scrupulous stud breeders have created special flocks primarily for the purpose of producing superior trial wethers, further distorting the aim and intent of wether trials. Due to these factors and a few others, we see some danger in the current push to use wether trial data without further analysis of the bloodline in your own breeding enterprise. Wether trial data is one source of objective information on which to base decisions. Others include Central Test Sire Evaluation and ASBV’s – Australian Sheep Breeding Values. However all this information is only preliminary to the most important evaluation of all –and that is how that bloodline performs in your environment, under your management and with your ewe flock. This is the most important, and most definitive trial of all and the only way you can do this is to set up a bloodline progeny trial on your own property. Setting up a bloodline comparison trial is very simple and straightforward and does not involve a large amount of extra work. The critical thing is to identify the lambs produced by the new bloodline as a group and then compare their total production on a per head basis with those sheep produced by your usual bloodline source. If you would like further information on the steps involved to measure genetic difference as accurately as possible we would be happy to assist you.
How to run a bloodline comparison trial on your property From a commercial mans point of view, one ram breeding better or worse than another is no big deal. The important thing is whether the group of rams you have purchased from your chosen stud is pushing the genetics of your flock in the direction you want it to go. Finding out before you have wasted a lot of time, and spent a lot of money, on a new ram source that ends up not delivering what you thought it would is a problem to be avoided. An on farm bloodline comparison trial is the quickest, cheapest and most accurate way of discovering whether a new ram source is capable of producing more profit from your sheep enterprise.
Here's how it works: Select a minimum of 5 rams from a new stud. Select them from the same grade as your previous ram source. Join these rams as a group to a selection of ewes Choose a similar number of rams from your old stud and join these as a group to a selection of ewes similar to the ones drafted off for the new rams i.e. same age or mix of ages, same bloodline etc. After joining run both groups of ewes together again before splitting them into their original groups just before lambing . At lamb marking identify the lambs from each bloodline group with a different coloured tag. e.g. red for one group, blue for the other. At weaning or before if possible, run all the lambs from both groups together and keep them together until their first main shearing. When they come in for this shearing draft them back into their bloodline groups and shear separately. If they are classed before shearing, note the classers comments on each group and reasons for culling. Weigh the bales and butts of each group and divide the total weight by the number of sheep in each group to determine average fleeceweight per head. Get separate tests done on the wool from each bloodline and get separate valuations for each bloodline group. Compare the results based on total fleece value per head. Body weights can be compared as well if required. Results Hazeldean has been involved in many on farm bloodline comparisons. We have been compared to over 40 other studs in all parts of Australia. We encourage wool producers who express interest in Hazeldean genetics to use the above process to determine accurately if Hazeldean is the correct ram source for their business. In the trials we have been involved in, increases generated by Hazeldean rams over other ram sources have been from a low of 49c per head difference to a high of $10 per head in the first generation.