BOONERAH COOPWORTH SHEEP STUD
- State
- VIC
- Region
- VIC - West
- Animal
- Sheep
- Breed
- Any, Coopworth
- BJD Status
- Not Applicable
- Town
- Hexham
- Address
- Boonerah
- More Info
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View Contact Details
- Mobile
- 0408365756
- Phone
- 0355997233
Boonerah is pleased announce that in July of this year the purchase of Dick Wigans ‘Dunkeld’ Coopworth stud. Dunkeld is one of Australias largest and oldest studs. We are greatly excited by the quality sheep that will significantly boost our breeding program.
Boonerah is located at Hexham on the banks of the Hopkins River in South Western Victoria, the property has been farmed by the same family for 150 years, with sheep being the backbone of the business the over that time.
The Coopworths comprises of both a recorded and a commercial flock. The recorded flock was founded on Dunkeld and Cleverlie ewes, these ewes now have over 30 years of performance recording behind them. Artificial insemination is used extensively, with top sires sourced from Australia and New Zealand
Pushing the boundaries of sheep production that will deliver under commercial conditions year in year out is the driving force behind Boonerah’s breeding program. To achieve this there are six key areas that we target
1. STRUCTURE
This goes without saying we have a no tolerance approach
2. FERTILITY
Fertility is viewed as the most important trait in our sheep. Scanning percentages in our flock are upwards of 180%, we are not stopping there. Only ewe lambs born as twins are retained, ewes which have singles twice in their life are culled.
3. GROWTH
Growth comes from two areas in a maternal sheep flock, the ewes ability to rear a lamb; milk, and the lambs own ability to grow; growth. As our sheep are primarily maternal so milking ability comes first, as the most money is made when the lamb is sold directly off mum. Growth is not ignored moderate selection is incorporated to complement the terminal requirements of our sheep
4. LOW INPUTS
Our recorded sheep spend most of their life amongst our commercial ewes and are stocked in mobs of 1000 plus. This insures that there is no preferential treatment of our superior ewes and allows the true tough genetics float to the top.
5. EFFICIENCY
Basically is kg of lamb produced per kg of ewe. This is not as simple as small ewes producing big lambs. If the ewes are too small there can be issues with hogget mating and also lambs meeting market specifications On the other hand we do not want our sheep to become too big as they require more feed for maintenance and as studies by Prof Coop in the 1970’s found that there was no increase in lambing percentage in ewes above 70kg LWT at joining. Our current aim is to have each ewe wean a minimum of her own weight in lamb
6. LONGEVITY
Younger sheep should be the most productive and short generation intervals are very good at speeding up genetic gain, however, we are aware and do not want out sheep to become so genetically fired up they only last for a couple of years. In our recorded flock we have quite a few ewes at 9 years of age even one at 10, and they are not our best but they performing well enough to stay in this flock.
Enquiries and inspections are always welcome - Contact Lachie Ranken
Classifieds
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READY TO WORK 1.5 YEAR COOPWORTH RAMS, AI BY TOP AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND SIRES, LAMBPLAN DATA AVALIABLE
Sheep for Sale
Hexham, VIC
Reference Sires and Dams
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New Zealand semen sire
Hexham, VIC