THE challenge of breeding good Merinos has always stuck with Barry Carruthers, who enjoys producing sheep that consistently grow “good genuine medium wool fleeces”, soft handling and plenty of it.
His flock is so good, it won the 2012 Lake Cargelligo Maiden Merino Ewe Competition for the second time in three years.
Mr Carruthers with wife Vickie, son Stephen and his wife Sharee, operate a successful mixed farming enterprise of sheep, cattle and cropping on owned and leased country over three properties totalling 4453 hectares in the Tullibigeal and Kikoira districts.
They stick to a cereal cropping regime of wheat, barley and oats grown annually on up to 1620ha, with lucerne and clover improved pasture covering spelled paddocks for between four and eight years.
The family have entered the annual maiden ewe competition each year since it started in 1996, except for two years when they changed their breeding and shearing program.
“We used to shear in June/July and lamb out in March/April, but we were lambing on no feed, so we changed our shearing to March/April and lambing to June,” Mr Carruthers said.
While the flock of 1500 Merino ewes runs over the three properties, it was first based at “Millbank” on granite country at Tullibigeal and then also on “Braemar”, Kikoira, which runs into mallee country at the back.
Their success with Merinos began in the middle of the 1982 drought with the purchase of a mob of western-bred lambs.
“These were Collinsville blood and large, plainer framed ewes which we decided to join to One Oak Poll rams to start working on the wool,” Mr Carruthers said.
The family continue to buy up to nine rams a year at the Wells family’s on-property stud auction and the progeny are now classed by Michael Elms of Narrandera, who followed on from Ian Marwedel.
“Michael goes through the rams and selects them and then I follow and pull out the ones I don’t like,” he said.
“We run the rams with our ewes at about 1.5 per cent.”
Last shearing the flock averaged 21.2-micron and cut a 7.75 kilogram fleece on average.
“We’ve been on 21- to 21.5-micron for a number of years and never wanted to change.
“Even when the ‘go fine’ push was on, we stuck to what we had here.
“It just suited the country and our enterprise.”
Mr Carruthers said he stuck to the medium wool “because you can put plenty of wool on them”.
The family keep culling at around the 30pc to 33pc rate, depending on what sort of lambing they achieve, but end up with a good line of some 400 ewes each year.
“The maiden ewes in the competition came from a 96pc lambing year, probably the best average we’ve had for a while,” he said.
Young ewes cut 8.5kg of wool and the weight comes down a bit with the older ewes, according to Mr Carruthers.
“But it’s a good, soft handling fleece actually – good genuine medium wool would be the best way to describe it.”
Depending on the season the family also joins 600 ewes, “usually the older girls”, to White Suffolk rams for terminal lamb production.
“We sometimes keep the culled ewes, it just depends on how the year is, season-wise,” he said.
Those lambs are marketed mainly through Griffith saleyards as early as possible.
The Carruthers also run a Poll Hereford commercial herd, purchasing bulls from either the Wodonga or Dubbo national sales.
Mr Carruthers said he enjoyed the maiden ewe competition.
“The main reason we enter is because it’s good to get around and see the other flocks.
“You can always pick something up that you could do different with your own.
“And it creates an interest in the district.”
