Joy and Allen attended the major Field Day event for the Merino Lifetime Productivity trial at Harrow in Western Victoria.
On Day 1, we were able to inspect all the remaining ewes born from both the 2015 and 2016 drops. Glen Holme 141077 is the only Dohne amongst 134 sires in this huge National project. He proved to be at the very top of lambs weaned from his daughters in his group of 25 sires. This came at no great loss of wool cut, and fibre diameter was good too. An Industry Dinner was held in Hamilton which we enjoyed. It was good to meet other Dohne Breeders that we had not seen much of in the previous 2 years.
Day 2 allowed us to see both the 2020 drop hoggets in full wool and the 2021 drop weaners in their lamb’s fleece.
Our entrant in the 2020 drop was 172565, his progeny are of a consistent plain body type that had handled a wet year well, with long, white staples of stylish wool. We are still eagerly awaiting the final results following the final shearing.
The Glen Holme progeny in the 2021 drop were exiting to see. We heard good comments coming from sheep breeders who had been in the industry for many decades. Once again, the wools were white, bright and well nourished. Their Sire is 194902, who has just had his first drop here at Glen Holme classed and measured. Their data will be processed soon through Sheep Genetics.
We also had a young sire accepted in the AMSEA trial located on the Trangie Research Centre property in the Central West of NSW. Joy and Allen assisted with their AI program for two days in early February. Lambs will be born in July. We had used the same ram in natural mating here.