Stud Ewes
Our stud ewe flock consists of around 420 ewes. These ewes are joined each December/January for a May/June/July lambing, either with A.I. or paddock mating.
We A.I around 175 of these ewes to proven sires to keep new blood coming through. The sires we choose to A.I. with are rams usually retained in their home stud and not for sale, but instead semen is available to buy. It gives us an opportunity to use rams that otherwise would be out of reach.
The remainder of the ewe flock are all paddock mated. Prior to this process we visually appraise and assess each ewes genetic and physical make-up and then they are selected to be joined to a particular sire. This is very similar to the hand mating process we have previously used, but less time consuming as we had to hand mate early morning and every evening of every day and with our own family extending over the years makes it very hard. We are finding we are still getting good results if not better.
