Hill Padua Polls Newsletter 17/08/2022

It has been a really good couple of years at Three Springs based Hill Padua Polls.

2021 was a year where the combination of good weather and good prices helped for what it was an excellent season not only for our sheep but also cropping department. For this current year the production cost is higher, but the profit margin is still there. We are focused on a mix farming operation which in our understanding it is much more stable than only cropping. While in our area the number of sheep is reducing drastically, we have farmers like Adam who, been part of Hill Padua have started a separated sheep production and have been successful in the first 2 years. Great example of people walking into sheep production with great success. There is plenty of room for profit in mixed farming in the Midwest.

Excellent results from last year

Last year was our first time at Dowerin field days, where we had on display some of our Rams with all their ASBVs and also had the chance to meet new people and catch up with many clients. We are really looking forward to 2022 Dowerin field days.

The ram Sale was a success, all the 120 Rams offered were sold, for a top price of$7400 and an average of $1380. We are really happy to keep sending out our genetics. We really appreciate the trust of our clients in our bloodline, and we are committed and working hard to continue improving to provide the best product as possible. We love listening to our clients’ needs and opinions, as we believe that we need to work as a team.

Our September wool clip sold for 20% more than market price for the same micron wool, based on the high staple strength of 71 N/kt. This Clip was acquired by a top European Fashion designer for their winter collection.

We also have high demand for our 700 Surplus Ewe Lambs, in the end, the 16 months old ewes were sold to a repeated client Andrew Cummins in NSW for a price of $330.

Merino enterprise goals

Beginning of 2020 we had a few changes in farm staff, David Groves who was the Sheep manager for 12 years, stepped aside from his position, and Fred assumed as Stud and Sheep Manager.

Also, Covid happened, and our Classer and very important piece of our breeding program Ken Duxson, couldn’t travel from Victoria. That led to Fred and David to step up and fill Ken’s boots.

After this Staff changes, we decided to also set up new goals for reproduction and breeding.

Reproduction, Increase Lambing percentages: We knew the fertility potential and the mothering ability of our ewes. The high scanning %, the way they look after their lambs and the big udders to feed more than one lamb were clear signals that we needed to explore higher lambing %. We wanted to increase our marking % from 107% average in the last 10 years to 120%.

Improving score condition: We believe that after weaning and before mating is our opportunity to recover and prepare the ewes for a new joining.  So, after weaning we started supplementing our ewes with the goal of improving score condition, even when in spring there is plenty of grass, supplementing save a little bit the pastures and improves our ewes’ daily diets. Supplementation was based on trial feeding lupins and hay. We had Score condition 3.5 to 4 by December when joining started.

Flushing: We decided to invest on “flushing” our ewes for joining. Flushing consisted of trail feeding lupins for 14 days, we feed our ewes 500 to 600 grams of Lupins per ewe, every day, 7 days before joining and 7 days after we put the Rams in. Flushing is really important to increase ovulation rate and, hence, scanning rate. This is an investment of about 20 to 22 ton of lupins per year.

Campyvac on maidens: we were disappointed with the lambing % on our Maidens in 2020, and we were able to observe that ewes that scanned pregnant never delivered their lambs, so we thought it was a good idea to treat our young ewes for Campylobacter which is a bacterium that cause abortions. Maiden ewes improved from 89% lambing in 2020 to 110% in 2021, and 109% in 2022.

High volume of Rams: Our Joining always starts around 20th of December, and we join for 6 weeks, which is over 2 reproductive cycles. Because of our summer conditions where we have 40c degrees, we understand that it is a hard work for our Sires to serve all the ewes, so we decided to increase to 2.5 – 3 Rams every 100 ewes.

The combination of these 4 steps have become very important to achieve high scanning %. We decided also to change our Scanning to the service of Bec Martins, which is recording every ewe at scanning for singles, twins, and triplets, which is giving us an extra tool at the moment of selecting our next breeding ewes. At this stage we have two years recorded in all our adult ewes and there is interesting to see how many ewes have repeated twin pregnancy for two years. Scanning results for 2021 was 157% with 96.5% pregnancy rate, and 2022 was 159% scanning with 96.3% pregnancy rate.

Reducing Paddock and Mob size: in 2021 we had about 20km of fencing done with the goal of splitting paddocks. It is known that every time we split a paddock in half the production of the paddock by rotation increases about 20%. All Paddocks bigger than 120 hectares were divided in half. We still have some paddocks of around 100 hectares that will be divided in the future. We believe that this is helping with pasture performance as well as sheep health. Reducing mob size have also been important to reduce miss mothering. We have around 20 mobs that goes from AI and Single Sire groups of 50 to our biggest mob of 280 ewes. We are working on reducing our mob size to 200 ewes maximum. The smaller the mob, the better result.

Checking and feeding through Lambing: We have taken the decision to assist and feed our ewes through lambing. This can be considered as a negative thing for miss mothering, but We have clear understanding that the more we interact with our ewes and the more we are around, the less problem it is. At this stage we can feed, check, and assist our ewes and lambs through lambing without any miss mothering.

Fox baiting: we realized that foxes were a problem for us, so we have been baiting for foxes around the property with very good results.

Finding the right number: We believe that sometimes less is more. So, we have been trying hard to find the right number of ewes for our system. We are slowly reducing our number of ewes but increasing our number of lambs.

Hill Padua Results: A combination of all this and high fertility bloodlines have been the reason for our improvement and results.

 202020212022
NUMBER OF EWES MATED307829092827
SCANNING %148%157%159%
PREGNANCY RATE94.2%96.5%96.3%
NUMBER OF LAMBS MARKED327535333653
LAMBING %106.4%121.5%129.2%

 

This isn’t only a result for us, we are also very proud of our clients achieving same or even better lambing results with our genetics. Cases like Harley Sears, Adam Thomas, Robbie Weir, Brian Baxter, Bec Martins… just to mention some, but honestly, we are all working together, and we are not afraid of helping our clients, so we can all improve together. Our genetics are nothing if we don’t have our clients that believe on what we are doing and the type of Merinos we have.

Breeding:

After Fred and David took over from Ken, we decided to set a new goal on our breeding program. Listening to our clients we understood that we needed to provide more wool cut, but without losing our Growth, Fat and Emd. So, the transition will be slow, but we are really working on it.

 

Ken set up an amazing line of ewes, they are excellent on their Growth, Fat and Emd measurements as well as very fertile, so, we couldn’t ask for a better starting point.

We thought that we needed to be honest with ourselves and set an approachable goal. We started on the low 5kg per ewe, we are now in two years in 5.5kg and our goal is 6kg of quality wool. At this stage we believe that 6kg will be good enough, and more than that will be too risky to lose the type of sheep we have and turn too much into just another traditional merino stud, and we do not want to go that way.

It is clear for us that we need to maintain the soft skin, plain body, and wrinkle free ewes that Ken left us and slowly add some density. Also, it is very important for us to maintain a long staple length to achieve 60 to 80mm of wool length every 6 months.

An aspect that we have been working very hard is on structure. This is the figure we are chasing the most, leg problems are not accepted, and we are working very hard on body depth. For this year Ram sale, we can say that we have a very correct sale team regarding structure.

Photo: Stud Reserves, 210274 left and 210273 right.

We are now carefully selecting Rams with higher wool density, better nourishment, and good structure. In this search for Rams with better wool, we came across a few interesting Sires.

Sire 180703, have been an excellent sire to improve our wool, having positive fleece weight and really long staple length as well as fertility.

Sire 191060, was the heaviest wool cut of his year’s drop and he is a good for growth and meat Ram as well.

Sire 190523, David spotted him as a Lamb at post weaning weight with just 7 months of age, and as we all like to do, he named him David, as it was “his” ram. He was the second heaviest wool cut of his year and had a staple length of 100mm in 6 months, 16.5 micron and a very bold crimp that you couldn’t believe he was so low micron. He was also excellent on his Growth, Fat and Emd measurements, as well as being very deep, plain body, good legs and really masculine with a  pure head. Making him a no brainer as a keeper and Sire for our stud. In 2019 joining we try to use him as a lamb, and he went out to a paddock with 40 ewes as a Single Sire, he came back very big and fat and impregnated 1 of the 40 ewes. In 2020 we did AI and Single Sire with him and have no problems. Last year he was killed by dogs, which was a very sad October day at Hill Padua. This sire will have some very nice Rams on the 2022 Sale Team, and he provided us with a Ram 210273, which is in our opinion one of the best Rams we have breed, excellent structure as well as top measurements, it is a perfect example of the type of Rams we are trying to breed.

In addition to our breeding program, we have decided to invest in full DNA and Genomic testing all our Nucleus animals, aiming for an accurate pedigree and an more accuracy in our ASBVs.

Our breeding goal is very clear, we wanted to provide to our clients a good option for today’s markets, with high fertility, fast growing animals, and high-quality wool.

We believe we have a very competitive product; in the last 2 years, helped with good market prices we have sold all our whether lambs for an average price of over $200, and we are always able to achieve good prices for our wool. We can say that at today’s market prices, 1.2 lambs per ewe and 5.5kg of wool is producing an income of $300 or more per ewe on farm. We understand that every ewe that doesn’t raise a lamb it is an expensive ewe to have on farm.

2022 Ram Sale

This year’s Ram sale will be Monday 19th of September, will be on farm at 792 Strutton Road, Three Springs, Inspection 10am, sale 1pm.

We will have 124 Rams on offer this time, we will have the normal 120 on the sale team, with what we consider the best 20 to start with, but this year and after listening to some of our clients, we decided to have 4 of our Reserves or keepers on the sale as well, some of them will be on display at Dowerin and Newdegate.

This year’s Rams is the first drop where the mating was done by Fred and David, we didn’t use any external semen for this drop, but there will be plenty of Rams with East Loddon and Anderson Rams as a Grandsire or bloodline. Rams had a really good early growth and that gave them the chance to express themselves on their ASBVs.

We are proud to say that this is the first year where the average of our sale team is sitting Above the Australian average for Ycfw, with some animals reaching Top10% and Top20%. This is a clear indication of the direction we are heading. The Sale Team average is also sitting on the Top10% In Growth, Fat and Emd and maintaining a micron average of 18.5. Also, all rams have been DNA and Genomic tested for more accurate pedigree and data.

We are really looking forward to having you at the farm on Sale Day, as Anthony always says, Just come and have a look.

If you can’t make it, the sale will be interfaced in Auctionplus, and closer to the date will be announced delivery dates for the eastern states.

The Hill Padua Polls team wish everyone is having an awesome season.

Animal Welfare at Hill Padua Polls

Orphan lambs have been in their numbers at Hill Padua’s Multi Purpose Merino stud this year, particularly after a progressive improvement in husbandry management practices that has increased the number of lambs born.

Stud manager Fred Echaniz and farmhand Gabby Cirillo counted 65 orphan lambs they had picked up off the paddocks since the May-June lambing.

“We had 1570 multiple births from 2900 stud and commercial ewes,” Mr Echaniz said. “That’s 70 per cent of the total ewe mob dropping twins or triplets.”

CLICK HERE to read full story thanks to Bob Garnant – Countryman

2018 Ram ASBV’s

All our Data has been collected thought out the last 12 month and submitted to Sheep Genetics and we how have our 2018 ASBV’s back in time for LambEx in Perth on the 7th and 8th of August 2018.

Once again we will be attending Mingenew Expo for the two days on the 15th and 16th of August 2018 with a selection of Rams on display

Following this our Rams sale will be held on farm on the 17TH of September 2018 with 120 rams offered.

A copy of the SALE catalogue can be downloaded HERE,

A copy of the preliminary sire list available HERE

 

Training session

Monday 10th September 2018

Contact Adam if you would like to participate
0427541152

A one hour webinar session to help you navigate RamSelect.com.au and select the most appropriate rams for your flock

The Sheep CRC has developed a number of tools for commercial sheep producers that will drive genetic gain and productivity in your flock. We are delighted to partner with Hill Padua Polls to offer these tools to you in preparation for your next ram purchase.

Buying the right ram
Purchasing the right rams is paramount for achieving genetic gain and continued improvements in productivity. This is because of the high level of selection intensity that you can apply to your ram selections. Using ASBVs in combination with visual assessment for conformation and wool quality traits is the most efficient way to identify rams that will continue to improve your flock.

RamSelect
RamSelect.com.au is a web based program that allows you to;

  1.  Store information about your current rams and the team’s average ASBVs
  2.  Store your Flock Profile test results The information about your current rams and your flock can then be used to set ASBV criteria for future ram purchases.
  3. RamSelect also allows you to search and rank sale rams according to your needs and criteria. You can go to the sale or selection with the catalogue of rams ranked, to ensure you buy rams that will continue to make improvement in your flock.

What is Flock Profile Test?
The Flock Profile Test is a DNA based test. A blood or tissue sample from 20 randomly selected ewes from your youngest age group, is sent to the laboratory for analysis. The result provides you with flock average breeding values for all the important traits in a Merino enterprise. The cost is $700 plus GST. The test is particularly useful if you have been purchasing rams in the past without ASBVs and cannot determine the ram team average ASBVs.

The Sheep CRC are available to assist you to enter ram team data into RamSelect, interpreting Flock Profile test results and preparing for your next ram selection.

 

Please Contact Adam To participate

0427541152

2017 ASBV’s

We have been through the rams and have a preliminary 2017 ram sale catalogue that can be downloaded HERE, as well as our sire’s that can be downloaded HERE. In the near future we will be going back through the sale rams group and reducing this number ready for the on property ram sale on  the 18th of September.

A full list of ASBV’s can also be downloaded HERE

2016 ASBV’s

We have received our 2016 ABSV’s back from sheep genetics with some really encouraging results, All our key ASBV’s have increased with last year mating lifting our averages and providing solid feedback that we are on the right track with the rams we used in our mating programme.

 Merinoselect ASBV   Percentiles (Aust Wide)Top   1%  2%  5% 10%  20%
MicronPwwtYcfwYfdYwtYfatYemdMerino DP+
Australian Averages210.7-1.14.10.20.5134.9
Hill Padua Sire Av.18.36.424.21.212.21.72.9162.0
Hill Padua Sale Team Av.17.45.919.20.710.51.62.5154.9

A copy of our Sale Catalogue can be down loaded HERE 

A Sire list can also be Downloaded HERE 

2015 Sale team and Sire group ASBV’s

After a few busy days in the sheep yards with Ken Duxson classing the rams, we have put together the preliminary sale team and our Sire group.

A copy of the Sale team ASBV’s can be download by clicking HERE, and for those interested a copy of the Sire groups can by download HERE

Hill Padau MPM newsletter 16/07/2014

Hill Padua Newsletter 16/7/2014

Anthony and Geraldine have had a trip of a life time with Scenic Tours a South American Experiences
Galapagos Islands, Machu Picchu, a trip on the Amazon River then 10 days to the Antarctica, a couple of days at the Iguazu Falls then 4 days in Rio de Janeiro.

Anthony attended the World Merino Conference in Stellenbosch which is 70 ks out of Cape Town in South Africa. Met plenty of farmers and saw lots of sheep, believe me we are up there with our Plain Bodied, Fertile Multi Purpose Merinos (MPM)
Our sheep are all in good condition with lots of lambs. Tailed 120% – Ram Breeders average 122% Flock -118%.

Rams are all sorted and our ASBVS are back all ready. The results are very good and the information about our Rams can now be viewed on our Website www.hillpaduampm.com.au on For sale page under Rams.

Our Sale date is 22/9/2014 worth your while to come and have a look even if you don’t intend to buy there is always next year. We will also have a display at the Mingenew Expo on the 18th & 19th of September 2014.

The last of our Lambs went to WAMCO at the end of June with 105 of them Averaging $167.80, 74 little ewes averaging $123.00

What we are doing with our Sheep is a NO BRAINER. Check us out.