SOUTH Africa has become well known in recent years for its new strains of Merino type sheep – and now we have another.
The Armstrong family, Cassilis Park Merinos, Cassilis, have joined forces with South African Merino breeder, Andries Pienaar, who runs the Mega Merino stud at Colesburg in the Karoo region of South Africa, to start a Mega Merino stud flock in Australia.
James Armstrong, of Cassilis Park Merinos, said he was introduced to Mr Pienaar by well known sheep specialist and classer, Gordon McMaster, “Weir Park”, Narrandera.
“Gordie knew Andries wanted to set up a base in Australia and so Gordie was looking for the right people,” Mr Armstrong said.
He visited South Africa in May 2008 and by November that year the first 120 washed embryos had been imported and implanted.
The result was 65 embryo transfer (ET) lambs born the following April.
“They (the lambs) weren’t any bigger than our traditional Merinos – (but) certainly they showed plenty of vigour,” he said.
Since then the stud has completed other ET programs, in March, 2009, and December, 2009.
The March program included 200 embryos and resulted in 100 lambs.
These lambs are now weaned after being born in August during an extremely dry period for the property.
Mr Armstrong said they would continue with the autumn and spring lambings until the new flock numbered 500, a figure expected to be reached in about two to three years.
“There’s no grading up – it’s all pure South African genetics,” he said.
The Australian business is run as a partnership with Mr Pienaar and both sides contribute to the direction of the sheep.
“He’s the one that’s created these sheep, which are unique,” Mr Armstrong said.
The imports were selected from the top five per cent of the Mega Merino flock, which includes 5000 ewes.
In South Africa, Mega Merinos’ reputation is similar to its name – it’s big.
Mr Armstrong said Mega Merinos each year sold more than 1000 rams, making it the top Merino ram selling stud in terms of numbers in the country. And it’s expanding.
He said the theory was that Mega Merinos were the type that Australian Merinos were heading towards.
Thirty years ago the Pienaars had moved away from wrinkly sheep to a plainer type, he said.
It took about five to 10 years to fix the type and they had “tweaked it ever since”.
This included pressure towards improving fertility, carcases, wool quality and mothering ability.
In a natural grazing situation in South Africa, the flock was now up to 132pc lambing rates.
The carcase was suited to the export market, the wool was “a good bulky medium” and the ewes must wean half of their body weight in lambs to remain in the flock.
“If you’ve got a 60-kilogram ewe she has to wean a (three-month-old) lamb that weighs 30 kilograms, or two lambs that weigh 30 kilograms,” Mr Armstrong said.
The fibre diameter range was 18 to 21 micron, with the adult sheep expected to cut 10pc to 12pc of their body weight.
“These are his benchmarks, as he’s worked out if he breeds in these ratios these will be the most productive type,” Mr Armstrong said.
“Once you go over that balance, you’re jeopardising fertility, constitution and carcase.”
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