Making your sheepfarming easier and more profitable.

Progress and Innovation

Wairere has a long history of looking for a new and better way of doing things. From Len Daniell (Derek's grandfather), the first advocate of aerial topdressing (Len wrote to Henry Ford in 1926 asking him to design an aeroplane for the job), to John Daniell (Derek's father), who pioneered bigger inputs and substantially improved outputs on poor hill country, Wairere has been at the forefront of progress. Derek Daniell has continued the family tradition:

Ramselling joint ventures in Otago, King Country, Australia, U.K.

A large scale A.I. program with East Friesians to develop a new genepool for NZ sheep farmers.

The development of a wide selection of breeds/crosses/composites to produce “horses for courses” and hybrid vigour for clients.

Ongoing membership of the Wairarapa Romney Improvement Group, and its Growth Rate Flock trial since 1994, which each year compares the progeny from ten sires for carcass weight and value.

The first dual purpose sire to be used in the Alliance CPT trial. When used at Ashley Dene, Canterbury, against thirteen other sires (including five terminal sires), Wairere 2165/97 was second ranked for growth to weaning.

Participation in trials for parasite resilience, and twinning versus tripleting

Five years of helicopter sown brassica crops, followed by new grass, on uncultivable hills. What can we do on hill country to provide better finishing feed for lambs?

There are commercial parties with a vested interest in promoting various solutions to sheep breeding and productivity. Among these are gene markers, DNA maps, double muscling, parasite resistance, ACE (across flock and breed sire comparison) and SIL. None of them are perfect, some have a long way to go. Even within our well-linked Wairarapa Romney Improvement Group there are anomalies in across-flock comparisons which raise eyebrows among group members. A case point is the data comparing the growth rate of resilient sheep to resistant sheep. The resilient sheep win hands down. Another case in point was the highest yielding lamb (70% saleable yield) in the national “Glammies” competition – it was tough to eat.

As your proxy in the sheepbreeding world, we look at every “new solution” with healthy scepticism:
- Is it a balanced, practical solution?
- Will it make life easier for you? Or put more dollars in your pocket?