Breeding and Performance
All ewes are individually mated to the high performance sires from various Lambplan flocks. Membership of Meat Elite allows us to utilise top indexed sires from within the group. Meat Elite has purchased semen from some of the highest performing sires from the top flocks across Australia and members sit within the top 5% of genetric trends across the measured Australian flock.
Selected ram lambs are trial mated at seven months and some are retained for further use depending on the performance of their progeny.
About 10 sires from other high performance flocks are utilised annually by A.I. plus individual paddock mating with our own top Marocara sires.
Recommendations for preferred mating’s are provided by Sheep Data Managment Services who use MATESEL to optimise mating selection decisions.
The main aim of MateSel is to balance genetic gain and inbreeding whilst integrating pedigree informantion and ASBV’s to produce the best possible progeny.
All ram and ewe lambs are weighed at weaning and scanned and reweighed by Lambplan assessor Trevor Pearce at 6 to 8 months. The performance of the lambs from weaning to scanning is the most relevant to establish viable estimated breeding values (ASBVs).
Ram and ewe lambs are classed using Lambplan ASBV info with around 70% retention for rams for sale and ewes for flock replacement.
Ewe management at lambing is minimal as no assistance at birth has been provided since 1984. Lambing ewes are drifted every 40 new born lambs or every 3 days in batches to allow identification and tagging at 5 days old.