'There are fad-type breeds that emerge and then disappear because it's very difficult to finish some of those lambs from those breeds.' 'They hang up well and through the loin and leg the meat is superior. Through their frame they are full of muscle rather than fat, and their frame allows them to produce great yield and I would highly recommend the Southdown.' Chris Barry, Hardwick Livestock Manager, Kyneton.
Read the full article (PDF) written by Alan Welburn for Stock and Land 7 October 2021. Reproduced below with permission. Elm Southdowns was founded in 2018 with 18 ewes from Fairbank Stud, Tasmania, along with foundation sire Yentrac 16/0421. The stud owners, Charlotte and Stuart Drinnan, use regenerative farming techniques. Their focus is to breed tough sheep that do well on grass and require no extra inputs.
By Andrew Sellars-Jones
The Chandpara Southdown Stud was officially founded in 1988, but its founder, Andrew Sellars-Jones, began breeding Southdowns way back in 1974. Over the years the ewe flock has been kept small, with culling being heavy so as to concentrate on quality. This, in combination with sourcing the best genetics available in Australia and New Zealand via artificial insemination and embryo transfer programs, has resulted in long, leaner sheep with excellent growth rates and muscling. Reflections on the Southdown Sheep breed by George Melano Sr
While on a recent trip to Warrnambool to visit son George to celebrate his milestone birthday, the question of the modern Southdown was an obvious talking point. Having heard a lot about what the modern sheep was like and what he was doing within the showring and being careful not to say 'I remember when' was quickly avoided by an offer to visit Ned Nagorcka of Nedelle Downs Southdowns, a progressive breeder and old school friend of George’s at Hawkesdale. By Lynn and Pam Vearing
In the late 1800's and early 1900's 'Hendon Park', Epping, Victoria was a dairy farm, where they milked 80-90 dairy cows by hand. The Vearing Family (Lynn's grandfather) moved from Mitchelton near Nagambie and bought 'Hendon Park' in 1930. They ran merino wethers. Albert Vearing and his four brothers ran a shearing contract from the shearing shed on the property as it was one of the only shearing sheds in the district. In the early 1940's Albert and Beatrice Vearing (Lynn's parents) started a Southdown Stud and a Dorset Horn Stud. By Jennie Curtis
At Roogulli Farm in the NSW Southern Tablelands, Jennie and Chris Curtis breed smaller Southdowns, which are marketed and dual registered as Babydoll sheep. Sheep bred in the Roogulli stud are sold all over Australia to people wanting smaller, easy handling sheep. They are not miniature but at the shorter end of the Southdown size spectrum and have more wool on their heads that the bigger Southdowns bred by other studs for use as terminal sires. By Marylyn Stevens
Everything in a living being is centred on reproduction. There are living beings on earth today because other beings have reproduced with desperate eagerness for two thousand million years or more. In the simplest sense the term “breeding” means no more than just reproducing, as a result of a sexual union between two living things of a kind. This is what goes on in the wild, with the environment as the only controlling factor. In this way nature does only a limited amount of selecting because it is only concerned with reproducing and survival of the fittest. Story told by Frank Badcock
Fairbank Southdowns started in 1922 you might say as a result of an accident. My father Vern, at the time a young teenager was kicked in the head by a horse and as a result had a plate inserted in his forehead. Advised not to play sport his father suggested a sheep stud. He himself was already a successful breeder of English Leicesters as was his father before him. |
AuthorSouthdown Australia Archives
August 2023
Categories |
RSS Feed