news2009

PENDARRA NEWSLETTER

We regularly produce a newsletter for our commercial ram clients which is now available online. Activate one of the links below to view the newsletter.

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Welcome to the news page for

PENDARRA WHITE SUFFOLK STUD and PERFORMANCE plus GENETICS.

We will frequently use this page as a notice board to let you know what is happening within our stud and allow new visitors to our site to see some of the highlights over the past few years.

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Highlights 2009

Pendarra genetics continue to gain results

With numerous sales and shows in the later part of the year, Pendarra genetics have played a significant part of the successes of many studs who have used our genetics in recent years. Pendarra 043050 was the common factor in these successes and is continuing to have an impact across the breed with many sons being widely used. The 2 sons we have retained at Pendarra, 075630 and 075492, are producing some outstanding progeny and have been widely used in the White Suffolk breed. Pendarra 075630 was selected for the 2009 drop Sheep CRC trial and has progeny on the ground at a number of the Information Nucleus sites.

Pendarra 075630

Recent achievements of Pendarra 3050 progeny include top average price for flock rams at Detpa Grove annual sale with 3050 progeny keenly sought both in the stud ram selections and flock rams. Champion Senior ram at Adelaide Royal for a ram bred by Steve and Ros Funke, "Bundara Downs" which later sold for $21, 000 at the Elite sale. Champion Interbreed ram in the Objective Measurement Class at Hamilton Sheepvention once again to "Bundara Downs" and top price rams at many studs who have used 3050. Pendarra 3050 is aslo beginning to appear in the pedigree of many of the highly regarded sheep including the leading Lambplan sire on Carcase + in the White Suffolk breed, Ashmore 060263, and the Illoura ram lamb that sold for $26,000 at 2009 Adelaide Royal.

More recently, Pendarra 085244 "Cranky" has been selected for the 2010 Sheep CRC trial and has some impressive lambs on the ground at Pendarra which have resulted in an increase in his Carcase + performance figures.

Pendarra 085244

At the commercial level, lambs sired by Pendarra rams topped the lamb markets at all major selling centres during recent months, providing great results for our clients during a difficult season.

New Sire to our Lineup - "POWER PLUS" Pedigree and ASBV

A recent trip to Detpa Grove annual sale provided us with the opportunity to inspect an outstanding lineup of stud sires from which we selected a young sire that has all the carcase and sire potential that we were hoping to find to add to our genetics. Detpa Grove 080350 has an impressive Carcase +index over 200 as well as a very strong pedigree including the Detpa Grove elite ewe line leading to his sire Detpa Grove 050361 (Power), and Galaxy Park 023756 on the ewe side the pedigree. This young sire has tremendous bone and structural correctness and will provide a new genetic line for our breeding program.

It was the sire power and impressive hindquarter muscling that has been a good indicator of high feed efficiency that attracted us to this ram and we are confident that he will add to these specific traits that we have been working on over many years of selective breeding. With a very high and well balanced carcase plus index, he will be kept busy during the upcoming joining program and we are confident will combine well with the genetics within our stud.

Detpa Grove 080350

New White Dorper sires

With our White Dorper Composite breeding program producing some outstanding results, the challenge is to find new genetics that will continue to lift our sheep to the next level and not compromise the gains we have made. At the recent National Dorper sale at Dubbo we managed to secure 2 new sires after working our way through around 100 quality White Dorper rams. It is becomming more difficult to find exactly what we require for our breeding program but these new sires have plenty of positives in most areas relating to our breeding objectives. These 2 young sires from totally different breeding lines are remarkably similar in many areas and will fit nicely into our program, complementing the very "maternal" sires we have been using over the past 2 years, especially Good Shepherd 705 who has left some outstanding progeny.

ULEY 080038 KARYNGAL 080P88

Both these sires have excellent carcase muscling along with a great carcase shape and structural correctness which is vitally important in our breeding program. The other real feature is the softness that both these rams display, especially the Karyngal sire that has no evidence of any wool or coarse chalky fibre and has a great soft skin with a fine silky covering. The Uley sire is equally as soft but will have some degree of wool covering over the top without any coarse fibres evident. The quality of the covering on our Composites is one that we are determined to maintain, even though it makes sourcing new genetics very difficult.

We look forward to the 2010 drop lambs from these 2 sires and will be benchmarking them against Glen Park 680, one of the leading carcase sires in the White Dorper breed.

Dubbo Show becomes the Landmark NSW Sheep Show

After many years of promoting the Dubbo Annual show as the premier sheep show in NSW, recognition was finally given this year when the inaugural NSW Sheep Show was held at Dubbo. With close to 1,000 sheep from almost all breeds, it was surely a great spectacle for all involved in the sheep industry and a fitting reward for the late Sandra Wilson-Tink who worked tirelessly for many years to promote Dubbo Show and gain the recognotion it has finally achieved. A perpetual trophy for Supreme Ram was unveiled at the show in recognition of the efforts Sandra gave to the Dubbo Show Society.

The White Suffolk breed was again well represented at Dubbo with around 170 entries from 16 studs as this has for many years been the showcase for the breed in NSW. We added a few new faces to our show team and took 16 entries to what we knew would be our biggest challenge to date and a great opportunity to promote our genetics. Dubbo has traditionally provided us with some outstanding results in the past but this year provided by far our best result. We collected 5 blue ribbons plus Champion Ram, including three 1st's, a 2nd and a 3rd placing in the 6 ram classes we entered.

Pendarra 085244, "Cranky", provided Corey with plenty to smile about when he was awarded Champion Ram ahead of a very strong lineup of rams. This ram continues to improve and was not only credited with great carcase muscling and structure but late in the day, was awarded Best White Suffolk type across both ewes and rams entered.

Once again we tested our genetics through the objective measurement classes resulting in the highest scanned muscle depth in both the ewe and ram classes.

With lambs about to hit the ground and hopefully some rain to boost our crops, we have trimmed our show team back in numbers and given them a break until later in the year.

Great impact at Sydney

Our first appearance at Sydney since 2004 was most certainly noticed according to feedback from many within the sheep pavilion, creating one of the strongest displays of White Suffolk sheep seen in Sydney for many years. Consistent rain for the duration of our stay at the Show ensured a good flow of people through the shed and some interesting discussion on our sheep and all areas relating to the sheep industry.

Our pair of rams have created comment at every show we have attended this year and Sydney was no different. Described by judge Graeme Day as an outstanding example of exactly the type of sires the lamb industry should be using, this pair of rams attracted plenty of attention, not only during judging but for the duration of the show.

Another of our sheep to continually attract plenty of interest is our woolly ewe (085221) who, in the opinion of all who have handled her, "has unbelievable muscling through the loin and hindquarter and an outstanding carcase as well as great softness and style". We have a very high opinion of this ewe, a Pendarra 075123 daughter, who is one of 4 ewes in our show team sired by this young sire that unfortunately died at a very young age just after being used as a ram lamb for our 2008 drop lambs.

Included in the Pendarra 075123 progeny is a ewe that has achieved success at previous shows, and was sashed Reserve Champion Ewe at Sydney this year. This ewe, like 075221, displays great carcase and softness and we have no doubt will be a great breeding ewe.

Sometimes breeding objectives work according to plan

As our breeding focus has continually been on carcase attributes, feed efficiency and do ability, the trend toward an earlier maturing, heavier muscled type of sire is a natural consequence of this line of breeding. This perfectly suits most of our clients but what if we could put the same feed efficiency, do ability and early muscling on a later maturing, more extreme type of sheep?

In 2007 we selected around 100 ewes that were joined to Pendarra 032264, a very feed efficient sire with unequalled muscling through the loin, but a later maturing, slightly more extreme type of sheep. We were searching for progeny that displayed the same early growth and muscle development as our earlier maturing carcase sheep but had that fraction more lift which we hoped would equate to a slightly leaner carcase allowing extended marketing opportunities for our commercial producers. Of all the ram lambs from this joining, the best prospect was Pendarra 075166 who was used as a ram lamb over 15 specially selected ewes and from the resulting progeny, we took a 'punt' on Pendarra 085244.

This young sire continues to create interest wherever he goes. He is clearly the most extreme sire in our show team and was the most extreme sire across all the White Suffolk entries at Sydney where we put him through the objective measurement class to assess whether we had achieved our breeding objectives. We already knew he had the same growth and close to the same muscling as our earlier maturing sheep with just a fraction less fat, but how would he compare to not only the White Suffolk entries, but all the other breeds at Sydney Royal.

Pendarra 085244, affectionately named by Corey as "Cranky", not only had the highest measured muscle depth, width and eye muscle area of all White Suffolk entries but was one of the highest for these traits across all breeds. He scored 59.25 points out of a possible 60 for objective measurement finishing with 96.25 out of 100 overall. This was an outstanding result and reinforced the confidence we have in this young sire.

This young sire will form an important part of our breeding program over the next few years as we attempt to put early muscling on a later maturing type sire which will hopefully allow more flexibility for lamb producers to offload lambs early if the season gets tough, without the penalty of having a lamb carcase that is lacking in muscle and finish which consequently is not favoured by processors or consumers.

085244 has already been used as a ram lamb for the 2009 lamb drop so we will not have to wait too long to see the influence of this exciting young sire.

Still on the road

Since Canberra Royal we have attended shows at Boorowa and Yass, an area of the state where we have a number of ram clients.

Boorowa provided us with an opportunity to show some sheep that were not taken to Canberra Royal and we were successful in gaining Champion Ewe and Reserve Champion Ram over a weekend that provided an opportunity to talk and interact with lamb producers in a real country show atmosphere. It was great to catch up with our ram clients and meet many of the local sheep producers.

Yass Show saw 4 White Suffolk studs exhibiting around 40 sheep and the best lineup of sheep from all breeds seen at Yass for many years. Once again we were able to swap our team around a little taking 14 sheep which provided us with plenty of success collecting both Champion Ewe and Champion Ram. However the main positives from the show resulted from discussions with both fellow stud breeders and commercial sheep producers, especially in a region historically dominated by fine wool Merino bloodlines. There is no doubt the sheep industry is going through a period of great change and many producers are searching for alternatives to the breeding strategies they have practiced for many generations with our focus on high muscle without excessive leanness coupled with lower birth weights providing some real alternatives.

Champions from Yass Show

Canberra Royal

After a 4 year absence from the show scene where our total focus has been on commercial attributes and feed efficiency, we made a return to showing at Canberra Royal in February. With no consideration in our breeding program on selection for show type sheep, we were not sure what to expect when we fronted up to what was undoubtedly the best showing of White Suffolk sheep ever at Canberra Royal in relation to both numbers and quality, and according to many at the show, the best quality showing of Whites ever assembled in NSW/ ACT.

We had an outstanding result gaining major ribbon placings in every section we entered, finishing just behind the broad ribbon winners in both ewe and ram classes. Our sheep without exception were praised for their outstanding carcass attributes and muscling by both the judge and later by spectators in the gallery watching. Our 100% focus on commercial carcase attributes was clearly evident and gained the attention of plenty of commercial producers walking through the shed as well as fellow stud breeders from all breeds. A great result and one that has given us plenty of satisfaction, not just for the placings we achieved, but more for the comments on the carcase quality of our sheep in the days that followed judging.

Our Grandson Corey completed a great show, being awarded a first place in the Primary school sheep handlers competition after finishing in the top group for the 14 years and under section. Corey, who is 9 years old, did a great job on judging day showing off our sheep and attending to their feed and water requirements.

Our capable sheep handler