Nareen and Barrama breed pure Marinos as part of commercial and stud operations in a Mediterranean climate with hot dry summers and long wet winters with up to 200 wet days a year.
Nareen can have annual average rainfall of 670mm which Rob Russell explains “means that the sheep need to be built from the ground up, with sound feet, good robust bodies with a natural doing ability and quick maturing. We continue to select heavily against dag and muffled faces in the stud, and select for fertile, open faced sheep with wool which is soft, long stapled, bright, well nourished and with a well defined crimp”. Dale Bruns is the current Merino classer in our business and brings a huge amount of knowledge and networking surrounding the Merino industry.
Animal health and management are key contributors to the fertility and wool production of our sheep and we do not tolerate aggressive working dogs or animal mistreatment. We have worked hard to reduce our annual drenching to 2 or 3 times and we are trialing an unmulesed generation to test our genetics for the future. In the stud we are aiming to not mulse the ram portion of the drop to place as much pressure on the genetics and continue to class in low body wrinkle rams to breed from.
Commercial Flock:
We aim to produce easy care, 19 micron, heavy cutting attractive sheep with emphasis on fertility and carcass weight.
The business joins 24,000 commercial merinos that spring lamb. The ewe weaners, also classed by Rob Russell and Dale Bruns are assessed for their ability to contribute to the overall progress of the stud and commercial flock.
Commercial Production Figures: Average 1996 – 2020
- Lambing % – 100%
- Fleece weight – 5.5 kg
- Lamb fleece weight @ 7 months) – 1.7 kg
Barrama Merino Stud:
We join 1000 stud ewes using A.I. as well as natural matings with our own stud sires.
The stud has been classed by Rob Russell for close to 20 years with recent input from Dale Bruns. Ongoing management is from the Barrama team, Asta Vickery, Will Burbury and Gordon Dickinson.
Our AI program allows us to use elite sires from a range of studs where we identify outstanding individuals. These include Glenlea Park, Connewarran, Moorundie Poll, Ridge Way, Pendarra and Mernowie. A considerable amount of the recent AI sires have been large bodied, quick maturing , poll rams which we believe can assist growth rates, fertility and doing ability.