INTRODUCING Finn genetics to his commercial Merino ewe flock, Don Mudford hoped to de-wrinkle his sheep, increase fertility and move to a polled flock.
The Finn sheep had short tails with little or no wool, but Mr Mudford wasn’t aiming for that trait – not initially.
“After a few crosses back to Merinos, we found that the Finn-influenced sheep still had shorter tails, which they could hold up clear of any urine,” he said.
“We decided to see if we could maintain this trait in our Merinos and continue to put better wool on the sheep.”
Mr Mudford, along with his family, farms across three areas – 2400 hectares at “Parkdale”, Dubbo; the 1214ha “Weona Park”, Collie, managed by son, Scott, and the 21,448ha Birrimba Station at Enngonia, which is managed by son, Robert.
With a total of 8000 ewes, which includes the Parkdale SRS stud flock, Mr Mudford estimated that about 6500 would have some Finn blood, and he had set up a 400 head experimental flock of ewes to further test the short tail trait after noting its prevalence in his flock.
“In that experimental flock, we’re aiming to get 180 to 200 per cent lambs without needing to mules or tail dock,” he said.
“None of the ewes in the experimental flock have been tail docked.
“Our aim is to produce a flock that cuts a seven kilogram greasy fleece weight of 20-micron.”
Currently, the experimental flock cuts a 5.1kg clean fleece weight.
Finn rams were introduced to “Parkdale” in 2003 and used extensively in the commercial flock.
At about the same time, Mr Mudford’s sons finished school and he purchased Birrimba Station – in “cheaper grazing country” – which they stocked with “good, healthy western Merinos”.
“We put the first-cross Finn sires over them, and they produced large framed, plain bodied lambs with higher fertility,” he said.
“In that one cross, the lambs didn’t need to be mulesed.”
Mr Mudford said that not only were the tails shorter – about half the traditional length – but they were also lighter and thinner, ending with a point at the end of the tail.
“The last six to seven centimetres doesn’t grow any wool,” he said.
“The ones we like are about 18cm long – we’d been putting rings on their tails at about seven centimetres – and now, we are docking anything with a tail over 18cm.
“We kept the 400 ewes – which are about 20pc Finn and 80pc Merino – to see what management issues evolved.”
Despite questions about any effect the selection for a short tail may have on the sheep’s overall phenotype, Mr Mudford said this wasn’t an issue.
“They are long bodied sheep and the shorter the tail, the higher the fertility seems to be,” he said.
“There’s no issues with the spine; because we are naturally joining one sheep to another they aren’t being genetically modified.”
This was in contrast to a trial Mr Mudford said had been conducted some years ago, where a gene from the Minx cat – which is naturally tail-less – was introduced to sheep to attempt to shorten the tail.
Mr Mudford said the breech of the short tailed sheep was bare and the shorter the tail, the longer the area beneath the tail which was also bare.
“It (the bare area) can be up to two-thirds of the length of the tail,” he said.
Traditionally, Merino tails are about 35cm to 40cm at marking, Mr Mudford said, but the short tailed sheep were consistently about 18cm.
“The year-old ewes can lift the tail enough to escape the urine stream.”
Mr Mudford expected the tails would grow to about a quarter of the traditional Merino tail weight – light enough to lift during urination and defecation – and the wool quality on the sheep was improving.
“They’ve got enough wool, but I’d like to continue to shorten the tail further,” he said.
“We were quite prepared to lose wool cut when we started using the Finns, however we hoped to pick up that loss with the number of lambs we would get.
“But we didn’t lose any of the cut, which was an added bonus.
“They are the quickest way to stop mulesing – we haven’t mulesed anything for seven years and there’s not a mulesed sheep on any of the properties.”
No chemical flystrike control treatments had been used on adult “Parkdale” sheep for seven years.
Last summer, which was exceptionally wet, was the first time they had drenched adult sheep for many years due to the heavy worm burden.
The ewes breeches were jetted before lambing and lambs received an application under the tail at marking.
“But we are currently marking and haven’t applied any chemical to lambs this year.”
