Summer Newsletter 2023
Scotland & Wales Ram Sales
As usual Rams will be available from our Scottish and Welsh Ram sellers after the Annual Locks Farm Ram Sale day. This year Rams will be available for purchase from the 10th August. Please see the flyer for more info and do feel free to get in touch with Phil Preece (Welsh Sales), or Jim Logan (Scottish Sales) if you have any queries!
Client Focus: Gordon Wyeth, West Sussex
Long time Romney farmer Gordon Wyeth has been purchasing his New Zealand genetics from the Hodgkins family from Locks Farm in West Sussex for over 13 years & has consistently purchased Rams with the traits that have the biggest drivers for his business, number of lambs weaned & growth rates.
This has enabled him to build a business model on largely rented ground and some contract farming that today runs 13,000 Romney ewes plus another 2000 mated Romney Hoggets.
All sheep are lambed outside in what would be as close a system as where these sheep have derived from……New Zealand hill country.
Shearlings through to mixed aged ewes this year scanned an impressive 180.5% overall, with a mob of 1000 ewes doing 230%!
Gordon likes the NZ Romney’s for their adaptability and following one of the driest seasons on record still have the ability to scan at these levels.
Such is Gordon’s reputation a large part of his business model includes selling around 2000 surplus ewe lambs & 1000 Shearlings annually, Gordon’s sheep have leap frogged a number of UK farmers out of lambing indoors to successful outdoor low cost systems.
Gordon has Shearlings & Ewe lambs available this year as normal, enquires can be made directly or with Pierre.
Ram Sale 2022
Wairere Romney X Texel Rams available
These photos show our selection of Romney X Texel Tups for our annual Wairere UK auction on the 11th August at Locks Farm in West Sussex.
These Romney X Texel Tups are sired by our Romney X Texel’s imported from NZ of which we have now had 2 shipments alongside our bi-annual shipments of pure Romney’s bought in to continually keep refreshing our genetics in the Wairere UK flock & to continue delivering our UK clients the most up to date genetics.
On August 11th at 12 noon we will offer approximately 120 Pure Romney & 45 Romney X Texel Tups.
Roger & Beth Polson
Roger & Beth Polson are Organic Arable, Beef & Sheep farmers at Knock, northwest of Aberdeen.
Having previously visited Wairere Romney’s in New Zealand & seeing how the sheep were farmed on steep Hill Country running up to 1800 feet & best described as winter wet, summer dry, Roger came home & pondered how could these sheep fit our system and what did they offer?
Roger & Beth who farm organically have a supply agreement with Scotbeef receiving premiums for delivering high quality beef & lamb annually. A weakness in Roger’s system was having to purchase Blackface ewes annually to breed Mule ewes, Roger was keen to close the front gate on purchasing outside sheep & head down the self replacing flock path, thereby taking full control of bio-security & having only to buy a couple of rams annually. In 2020 4 Wairere UK Romney’s were purchased & joined with the Mule ewes to provide replacements.
Whilst it’s early days with the lambs shown only being around 70 days old, they look to be doing just aswell as terminal bred lambs and will defenitely be joined as ewe lambs.
On reflection Roger & the staff thought the lambs had a bit more thrift & get up & go when they were born & the 4 Rams purchased in 2020 have just been shorn & come through the winter really well.
When I visited in early July & took these photos Roger told me, “the proof will be the killing sheet” but he did order 3 more Rams, so I’ve taken that as a positive.
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