Fine wool sheep the Grampians’ passion

While many hill and high country properties have changed their sheep breeds from fine wool to strong, at The Grampians Station near Culverden in North Canterbury, Merinos have remained the breed of choice for many decades.  

The flock of 700 merino wethers are kept until the fleece starts to lose quality, if they produce good wool and have good teeth they stay on the farm.

About a quarter of the ewes are mated to a terminal sire – Romney, or black face, which gives a number of lambs that can be sold early.



The Gums
Lambing starts around October 10, when the main threat of snow has passed and ewes lamb on the top dressed hill country.

Graham sources his Merino rams from The Gums, a large commercial property near Cheviot and has done so for more than 20 years. They have suited The Grampians’ breeding programme and Graham has no complaints about the offspring.

The straight Merinos are carried through to hoggets and sold off shears. As they cut their two teeth a bit later than strong wool sheep, they can be carried a little longer.

The system has worked well for Graham, but with a severe drought this year it has been a struggle and he is expecting wool weights to be back a bit on most years.

Some rape was sown at Karaka Downs (the lease block), this year, which finally grew after a bit of autumn rain and the hoggets have been break fed on this over winter. Graham says he has also bought in a lot of barley for supplementary feed.

The aim of having the two properties, in a normal year, is that they complement each other. The Grampians is better summer country, and Karaka Downs good winter country being lower in altitude and warmer, although the drought has taken its toll on both properties.



Merinos’ bright future
Despite the stressful year, Graham says the sheep have held their own, but a lot more extra feed has been fed out to keep condition on.  

He sees a bright future for Merinos with rapid advancement made in breeding sheep that are plainer in the body, faster maturing and with a longer staple. The major breakthrough for many merino and quarter bred growers has been the development of a gene test for footrot resistance.

“It has been a game changer for us here, the merinos would have gone years ago if it hadn’t been for the development of the footrot gene test. We haven’t had to inspect feet or foot bath sheep for years.

“It is quite exciting to see how rapidly the Merino has made progress towards becoming an easy care, truly dual purpose sheep.”


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