Australia’s largest evaluation of merino genetics is about to begin in New South Wales.
The Peter Westblade Memorial Merino Challenge 2012-2014 will commence in early April 2012 with up to 60 teams of 30 wethers from participants in Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales.
Merino Challenge convener, Craig Wilson, said the aim of the Challenge is to demonstrate the relative productivity of a merino flock for economically important traits under equivalent conditions.
“Like the previous Merino Challenge, the Peter Westblade Memorial Merino Challenge in 2012 - 2014 will continue to assist merino breeding enterprises make more informed decisions on their merino genetics,” Mr Wilson said.
“The information and data analysis produced will show entrants and the wider sheep industry the financial gains that exist through high performance merino genetics.
“Entry to the Merino Challenge is open to any commercial breeders who are running self replacing merino types.
“We have received an overwhelming response from past entrants for the up-coming Challenge and a limited number of places are still available, and in this challenge we are extremely keen to benchmark a wide range of merino types such as the Dohne and SAMMs,” he said.
Each team of 30 wethers will be randomly split into two groups of 15 wethers and allocated into the Meat Challenge and the Wool Challenge.
The Meat Challenge wethers will be fed a full commercial feedlot ration supplied by Conqueror Mills and processed at Fletchers International abattoir at Dubbo.
The Wool Challenge wethers will be run over two years at the Temora Agricultural Research and Advisory Station and assessed for meat and wool performance each year.
“The 2010-2012 PWMMC has shown the range in net profit from feeding merino lambs for meat and or to grow wool can be doubled by using high performance merino genetics,” Mr Wilson said.
The challenge has proven beyond doubt what a merino sheep can achieve, combining excellent growth and carcass traits with high wool cuts which have low fibre diameter,” he said.
Over the last ten years, Merino Challenge Convenor Craig Wilson has collected benchmarking data on more than 4,500 wethers run in trials at Wagga Wagga, Alectown, Warren, Taralga and Temora.
Mr Wilson said regardless of trial location, the trial data consistently shows that it is extremely profitable to breed merino sheep that combine both high wool and meat values.
“Genetics is the key in merino sheep production, the range in net profit can be as much as $40 per head, if you are running 3,000 sheep this equates to an additional $120,000 profit per year,” Mr Wilson said.
Marty Moses, a director of Bluechip Livestock, said knowing the relative merits of your merino genetics must be of the highest importance.
Previous entrants acknowledge that this type of objective information is vital for merino breeders and the industry as a whole in maximising their profit.
“Bluechip Livestock has been successfully marketing some of the PWMMC entrants high performing sheep, achieving premiums above current market value from a growing number of buyers who are prepared to invest in high performance merino genetics,” Mr Moses said.
“The key to achieving consistent premiums for our clients is having their sheep benchmarked in the PWMMC,” he said.
The Challenge honours the late Peter Westblade, a true visionary, epitomising compassion and devotion to a cause who passed away in late 2008.
For more information and entry form contact Craig Wilson on: 0428 250 982.
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