OBJECTIVE selection for fleece weight and fibre dia- meter at a Parkes Merino operation is proving fruitful.
Eight years of measurements has led to an improvement of one mic- ron in fibre diameter for Parkes mayor Ken Keith and his wife Sue.
They've made these gains while increasing fleece weight by slightly more than one kilogram on their 10 month-old finewool ewes.
However, it took a farm benchmarking group conducted by Hol- mes and Sackett, Wagga Wagga, to sway their view and change their focus to the production of finer wool on their farm "Stanleigh".
Both Mr Keith and his brother Tim had been breeding broader wool Merinos, with Ken lambing in spring and Tim in autumn.
"The benchmarking was promo- ting finewool sheep at the time and I had decided to change and gradually upgrade within the flock," Ken Keith said.
However, Tim's flock contracted footrot and, remembering the work of paring the sheep's feet as young boys, they decided they would not do that again.
Ken Keith suggested he sell his sheep to his brother to continue the broader strain and bought new finewool ewes to begin his quest.
"It was a win-win result," he said.
He eventually found the bloodline he liked at Cressbrook, Armidale, and purchased 300 ewes from there and another 800 from a long-time Cressbrook client.
A couple of years later he bought some rams from The Grange stud, Kojonup, Western Australia, which had established a daughter stud at Parkes with embryo transfers.
"They had some finewool sheep 20 minutes down the road instead of a six hour drive to Armidale," he said.
"I used them for a couple of years and then returned to Cressbrook."
However, the hybrid vigour achie- ved from the outcross has paid dividends within the flock, Mr Keith said.
A team of 10 currently entering the third year of the Parkes Show wether competition led the trial this year for an average value per head of $135.04, being the best overall for fleece and carcase value.
The average wool value was $51.62, while the carcases averaged $83.42.
"I have quite a large framed fine- wool sheep and I'm sure the wethers won the trial this year more because of their carcase value rather than their wool."
The carcase value pushed them up to the top, which is an interesting result for finewool sheep, according to Mr Keith.
The "Stanleigh" flock now stands at 1500 ewes and the Keiths replace their cast-for-age ewes with 70 per cent of the maiden ewe drop each year.
The top 25pc of the culls are join- ed to Border Leicester rams for first-cross lamb production and the bot- tom 5pc are sent to market at the Central West Livestock Exchange, Forbes.
He kept all his Merino wether lambs this year and will shear them as hoggets before deciding whether to keep them as woolcutters or cash them.
"The way mutton is selling now I may get $120 for a big-framed wether as a lamb or hold him and shear him for the wool value of about $50 and then sell him for a worth of $170," Mr Keith said.
It's been well worth the wait for the positive change in wool prices for this "dyed in the wool" Merino breeder.
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