Mating 2022

Well this season has already started better than Mating 2021 as we made it through with all of our rams still functioning. We also remedied our Toxovac situation and were able to get all of the M/A and two-tooths in sync with all of the rams going out at the same time. This year we had an entire Mangapiri Downs sire line up due to last year’s mishap cutting us short. Timmy (304/18) and Spotty (408/18) were called upon to service the M/A ewes again this year, which isn’t the worst outcome as these outstanding rams bulked on the condition from last year and were still holding their feet excellently. The two new additions to the sire ram team were Zoro (124/20) and Buck (385/20), both from the Mangapiri Downs Stud. These two were tasked with the two-tooth flock and upon examining the crayon marks at the end of mating, had a very good coverage. Each ram was given an individual mob this year of about 50 ewes and the crayon/harness system was used to determine early lambers, recorded after the first cycle. The rams went out on 16/03/22 and were removed after two cycles on 20/04/22.

Exciting times lie ahead as this season we also purchased a ram lamb from Waimea Wiltshires in Nelson. Early signs indicate that this boy will be a superb ram (all be it a little bit taller than our usual picks), however since he is from a new breeder we are going to carry him through to a two-tooth before using him just to make sure he holds his constitution this far down south.