Genetics focus leads to major wool improvement

It was the end of the 1990s, and the defunct reserve price scheme had left a stockpile of wool in the country, coarse wool in particular, the type of wool produced by John and Jo.

“We were growing typical SA Merino wool in bulk, averaging 23.5 micron, no one was paying enough for it and we weren’t producing enough either,” Mr Symons said.

John and Jo own Turkey Lane near Parndana – a 540-hectare pasture property running 5000 Merino sheep.

In 1999, Mr Symons approached KI vet Greg Johnsson, who had been helping local producers to improve their productivity and profitability.

“We were hoping he could assist us in coming up with some strategies that would keep us in business,” he said.

“At the time, Greg had been looking for a focus farm for the KI Sheep Production Group he was running and saw our farm as a good opportunity to start from the beginning, showing how to make a business more productive through management and genetic changes and demonstrating new technology.”

Mr Johnsson introduced the TOP Producers Program, a guided system that takes farmers through a series of steps that encompass all of the areas of running a successful farm business.

For John and Jo, this meant developing a clear vision and plan for the future of their business, creating the right mindset and attitude that would lead to success and implementing a series of management and structural changes that would allow the flock to perform at it’s optimum.

One of these changes was the formation of an aggressive Breeding Objective and the introduction of an advanced genetic selection program to drive long term gains in wool production and value.

The management changes brought immediate success. Profits began to flow. 

The genetic program took longer to generate returns as John and Jo elected to close the flock in 1999 and breed their own rams using artificial insemination. This was done for one very good reason - biosecurity.

Ovine Johnes disease had been detected in SA two years earlier, Turkey Lane was clear on testing for OJD, foot rot and lice and John wanted to keep it that way.

So in 1999, they started by picking out the best 200 ewes in the Symons flock, selected on measurement of the ewes that had reared lambs successfully that year. It became the nucleus flock.

Those 200 ewes were artificially-inseminated with the best sires available in Australia based on Estimated Breeding Values and all existing flock rams were sold.

“In 1999, our existing ram team averaged well below 100 points on our breeding index,” Mr Symons said.

“The best genetics we could source at that time had indexes of 130, and some were just not suited to our type of country. The genetic evaluation system for merinos in Australia was in it’s infancy and we became members of Merino Benchmark.

“Since then, with the amalgamation of all Merino performance databases into Merino Select, the job of selecting superior rams has become much easier.

“Today, we source rams with performance up to 200 on our index.”

This change in the breeding program has improved the Symons ram team average performance to about 170 on the Fibre Plus index and the wool flock now averages about 18M.

“Our breeding objective and selection processes has driven down our micron, without losing wool cut – that’s been the focus of our breeding right through,” Mr Symons said.

“We’re consistently cutting more wool than we ever sold back in the 1990s, at least another 30 bales more.”

This year they produced 172 bales.

“Prices this year have also been really good, up $4/kg on last year,” Mr Symons said.

“Our best fleece lines made 1500c/kg greasy.”

Mr Symons said being part of the Production Group has helped significantly improve his animal husbandry and overall flock health and appreciate the nutritional value in pasture and supplementary feeding.

“We also control internal parasites better and don’t have to drench as much,” he said.

“In the environment we are in, we still have to manage tensile strength in our premium fine wool and we lose a bit of price because of it, but we have managed to move the point of break to a different point in the staple to minimize the price effect.”

They have also moved lambing to late July and August when more feed is available.

“We used to lamb in June to enable the weaners to grow longer, but we would run into trouble lambing when there was less pasture for the ewes,” Mr Symons said.  

“We may sacrifice body weight on our weaners at the end of the year, but it’s better than not having adequate feed for ewes when they are lambing.

“We’re better matching the ewe’s need with the general pasture supply curve and decreasing our seasonal risk.”

The growing success of the business resulted in Turkey Lane winning the ABC Rural Wool Producer of the Year in 2014 and becoming the foundation case study of a new initiative called the Sheep Owners Academy, recently established by Mr Johnsson in partnership with business mentor Andrew Roberts.

The Sheep Owners Academy takes members through the TOP Producers Program in a guided and facilitated way that sets them up for long term success.

With daughter Hannah recently returning to the farm, Mr Symons said the Academy has enabled the family to set new business goals, which includes a better work/life balance and farm succession – something that was often thought about but never acted upon.

“Our business undertook some further revision when we joined the Academy as we gained a better business focus,” Mr Symons said.

“It’s something I should have done 30 years ago, as it would have put me in a much better position leading into retirement, but I am also in a much better position now than if I kept heading down the path I was on before teaming up with Greg.

“We have done pretty well in the past 15 years – it has been the easiest period in my 50 year farming life. It’s a matter of ramping that up further now that Hannah has come home.”

Mr Symons said the networking element of the Academy was also beneficial, to discuss farming matters with other likeminded business owners.

They have also begun to sell rams and semen.

“After 18 years of high quality breeding and selection, our rams and ewes are now in the top 1-2pc of performance tested merinos in Australia,” Mr Symons said.

“We have sold a reasonable amount of semen this year, including interstate to WA, NSW and Tas.

“We have also entered one of our sires into an evaluation trial at Balmoral, Vic, this year to benchmark a young ram we think is a good all-rounder, with high performance in the Dual Purpose, Merino Production and Fibre Production indexes at Sheep Genetics.”

Last year they sold 50 rams at their inaugural on farm Helmsman sale in November.

“We will continue to make the November sale an annual event,” Mr Symons said.

“While we have had a big focus on performance, as this is what makes you money, visual wool quality and structural soundness are also very important components of our breeding objective

“Our focus is to breed our own rams and sheep that can withstand high winter rainfall, with minimal fleece rot and dermo. 

“We don’t have to worry about sheep getting bodystrike anymore. We’re not 100pc fleece rot-free, but it is so much better than it used to be.

“Last year we received more than 1000mm rainfall and the flock performed really well.”

In the past two years, they have also begun using DNA testing to further improve flock genetics and breeding value accuracy.