East Loddon rams are “fit for environment”
By Krista Schade
The East Loddon ram sale has gone from strength to strength since their first on property auction in 2018.
The clientele and offering has since doubled to around 120 rams at auction and over 100 grade rams after.
The Hooke family runs 15,000 non-mulesed SRS merino ewes in the Wanganella/Booroorban district, and sell rams in pastoral environments as far away as White Cliffs and Wilcannia as well as high rainfall areas such as Young NSW and south to the Victorian western districts.
The East Loddon commercial flock cuts an average 7.3kg of 19.2 micron wool annually and this year achieved 116 per cent lambs marked to ewes joined.
Non-mulesed status has allowed access to lucrative forward contracts for ethically produced wool via The NZ Merino ZQ program. This years clip sold for 25 per cent premium.
Tom Hooke, of EL Merinos, stated that the aim is to breed sheep that are “fit for environment”. This means a carcase with extra energy reserves and a productive wool and skin that doesn’t attract flystrike.
A client from Jindera NSW recently commented that he saw a 5-to-1 difference in the instance of flystrike between his wether lambs sired by East Loddon rams vs those sired by his traditional ram source, both had the same ewe base.
The Lugsdin family of Birriwa, Hay has been purchasing EL rams for eight years to meet their objective of improving wool and carcase traits simultaneously.
They have been able to benchmark progress with on farm data recording and genomic flock profiling. They have also been able to cease mulesing in 2019.
Above: East Loddon’s Tom Hooke (with microphone) addressing the crowd before last year’s auction flanked by the team from Australian Wool Network. Images: supplied.
