Discard your catalogue

“The flock farmer could just as well discard his catalogue and confidently fill his bakkie with rams. This is the most uniform team of rams that Konsortium-Merino has ever produced.”

This remark was made by Gawie van Heerden, Konsortium breeder, apropos the 132 rams on offer on the Spring sale, 1 September 2005, their ninth sale. He maintains that these rams will make a difference to any Merino flock.

Derick Erasmus (Stutterheim), who has been buying Konsortium rams since 2001, says that his sheep now are bigger and plainer and that he is assured of a good B-length wool every eight months. His wool is not as packed as before and yet he does not shear any less wool. “In the past I pushed a C to a B-length. Today I realise what good wool length is.”

Derick admits that he used to pursue fine wool and that the incorrect type of sheep caused his lambing percentage to drop to 67%. However, in September 2004, he boasted with a lambing percentage of 112%. In January, these lambs were weaned off the veld at four months old and the heaviest of them tipped the scale at 42kg. Thanks to the Konsortium-Merino type, his year-old lambs weigh 8kg more on average, than in the past.

Les Ekron (Barkly-East),says that the first Konsortium-Merino rams that he bought in 2001 are still in his flock. “They have adapted very well to my mountainous country and are really hardy. I haven’t lost one yet.”

One of the plus points of the Konsortium-type, is the saving it has brought about in feed bills. His wool quality has also improved dramatically. On the CMW February 2005 auction, his lambswool realised the second highest price.

Recently, at a flock competition in his area, one of his ewes was crowned champion, and another was placed third. Les is also very proud of the weathers that he now markets.

Anton Lombard (Britstown), is convinced that due to the Konsortium-infusion in his flock, his Merino’s are more fertile and less susceptible to bloufly strikes. Anton loves his Merino’s and the ease with which he farms them now, has enabled him to replace the Dorpers he had on an outpost, with Merinos.

Konsortium-Merino performance tested 257 rams for their September sale. The average micron was 17.3. Kobus Vivier, Willie Kotze and Bennie Steenkamp, all from BKB, strictly selected 132 rams for the sale. On 22 July 2005, these rams averaged 78kg (heaviest 84kg), had an average micron of 18.5 (finest 16.3; strongest 21.3) and boasted an average clean yield of 70% (highest was 79%). There is still more than a month for these rams to grow. Come and take a look at them on 1st September!