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THE LAND | Thursday, October 17, 2013
A punch in productivity at Euabalong
By BRETT
TINDAL
HE reliability of Retallack Border Leicester
rams has been the key to
a 15 year association between
Steven Doyle, “Wistaton”,
Euabalong, and Graham and
Isabella Grinter’s Retallack
Border Leicester stud, Ariah
Park.
Mr Doyle runs 1500 ewes,
split into 750 Merino breeders
and 750 first-cross Border
Leicester/Merino ewes.
The first-cross ewes are
joined to Poll Dorset rams,
chasing highly productive,
early maturing lambs that hit
the market quickly for a 23
kilogram carcase weight or
above at five to six months of
age when sold through the
Central West Livestock Exchange at Forbes.
“We use Retallack rams for
their size and structure and
the extra punch they put into
T
Steven and Damien Doyle, “Wistaton”, Euabalong, with some of their 18-month-old first-cross ewes by
Retallack Border Leicester rams.
your program, coupled with
the extra lambs they produce,”
Mr Doyle said.
He said they achieved good
lambing percentages, with up
to 100 per cent lambs from
their Merinos, but were looking to move towards a Dohne
ewe base for a bigger frame
and more robust ewe to produce large first-cross ewes.
“We get 60pc of our lambs
off at five months of age,
thanks to the Poll Dorset
influence over our highly productive, big framed first-cross
ewes,” he said.
“The Retallack rams continually throw us good, robust,
first-cross ewes as a neat line
of lambs that breed on and
regularly produce twin lambs.
“They are good clean-bodied
ewes that mature quickly.
“I find that I can join them at
12 months of age, before they
get too big and fat as an older
ewe.”
Mr Doyle said he joined all
his first-cross ewes at 12
months of age last year and
achieved well over 100pc
lambs, with a large percentage of his ewes producing
twins.
He said the ability of the
Retallack sheep to breed on
was the drawcard, but was
matched with impeccable
service from the Grinters, who
would deliver rams purchased
from them, whether it be five
or 15.
“It is the same service that
saw Graham take my son
Damien on for a stint at
Retallack to learn a bit about
sheep when he left school, and
that has held him in good
stead for future positions he
has held,” Mr Doyle said.
“The Grinters offer a service
that is second to none and
breed in my view the most
reliable and productive rams
on the market today, with no
problems and delivered to
your door.”
Highly regarded at Nyngan
Our agents are honoured to have been associated with
Retallack for over 10 of their 50 years and are privileged to be
Graham & Isabella's selling agent.
RLA is Wagga's fastest growing Stock and Station Agency, selling weekly at the
Wagga Wagga Livestock Marketing Centre and servicing the greater Riverina
region with all your livestock marketing solutions.
James Tierney
0488 317 059
Brenden Halden
0488 317 054
Tim Drum
0488 317 058
PH: 02 6931 7423
EMAIL:[email protected]
www.riverinaagents.com.au
FAX: 02 6931 7665
TL1905700
Border Leicester rams for
about 13 years.
“With the number of rams
we need in our operation, to
buy replacements each year
would be quite expensive,” he
said.
The Kennedys now run a
flock of about 200 Border
Leicester ewes, and source
between one and three rams
each year from Graham and
Isabella Grinter’s Retallack
Border Leicester stud to use as
stud sires.
Mr Kennedy said they had
been sourcing rams from the
Grinters since they started
breeding Border Leicesters,
with their flock now based
exclusively on Retallack genetics, and they looked to secure
Andrew Kennedy, Canonbar Station, Nyngan, with first-cross ewe
lambs by Retallack-blood Border Leicester rams, which had been
sold to a South Australian buyer.
top-end sires each year.
“We’ve paid up to $10,000
for a ram we wanted in the
past,” he said.
“We’ve been extremely pleased with the rams – Graham is
a perfectionist and I regard
Retallack as the best Border
Leicester stud in Australia.”
The high quality of the firstcross sheep bred by the
Kennedys has seen them build
a number of return buyers for
their stock, with sheep regularly selling as far away
as Victoria and South Australia.
Depending on the season,
Mr Kennedy said they could
market their lambs as mixedsex store lambs; direct to the
works as either suckers or after
growing them out to export
weights, or keep the ewe portion to 12 months of age and
sell them to restockers ready to
join.
Traits the Kennedys looked
for in their Border Leicesters
included length and depth of
body and a big, upstanding
frame.
“There’s always plenty
of outstanding rams at Retallack for us to pick from,” he
said.
“We’ll be there again this
year.”
– BRENDAN MANSBRIDGE
TL1905589
RLA would like to congratulate Retallack
on their 50 Year Celebration
BORDER Leicesters form an
integral part of the Kennedy
family’s sheep operation,
based at Canonbar Station,
Nyngan, and Retallack bloodlines are at the forefront of the
breed according to Andrew
Kennedy.
Mr Kennedy, along with his
parents Rodney and Kathy,
brothers Bernard and Rob,
and sister Ang own about
10,117 hectares of land
around Nyngan, as well as
leasing some country, and run
about 10,000 Merino ewes.
The Merinos are joined exclusively to Border Leicester rams,
with replacement ewes sourced
from western producers.
Mr Kennedy said they had
been breeding their own