140 Merino & Poll Merino Rams
Hazeldean, Cooma NSW

Dear Merino Breeder,

We are very pleased with this draft of young rams and particularly the influence Hazeldean Hugh 11.3542 has had on our program. 20 sons of this outstanding sire are catalogued and represent an ideal opportunity to secure leading genetics from one of the industry’s most proven and prepotent rams sitting at the top of index ranking.

Also in this draft are sons of Hazeldean Haricot 11.43 who stamps his progeny with a very stylish wool preferred by buyers and very suitable to high rainfall environments. Other sires include high performing Hazeldean Amicale 12.4059 who topped the June shearing sire progeny average for raw fleece weight. Amicale is a very soft handling fine wool ram who breaks the fibre diameter fleece weight conflict in great style.

Also included are sons of 2 high performing outside sires – Nerstane 10.958 and Centre Plus 907538. Both these sires are independently proven high performance sires with large numbers of progeny to give certainty to expected progeny performance.

Hazeldeans program is all about maximising the fundamental profit driver in agriculture – returns per hectare. Wool is still the most important determinant when analysing returns from a merino operation and growing more wool per hectare is what it’s all about. Huge sheep might look appealing in the paddock but it is important to understand that the maintenance requirements of these animals is higher and therefore fewer can be run per hectare. They might cut a lot of wool but increasingly the evidence points towards less production and profit per hectare with very large bodied sheep.

Breeding is about balance and correctly prioritising selection criteria so that profit per hectare is always paramount.

We look forward to seeing you on sale day.

Regards,

Jim Litchfield

2016 Hazeldean Ram Sale Average ASBV’s compared to Industry

	YFD	YCFW	YDCV	YWT	MP+	7&
HAZELDEAN RAM SALE AVG	-2.0	21.1	-0.4	3.9	163	170
Merinoselect Industry Avg for all 2015 born animals	-1.0	11.2	-0.6	3.8	132	NA

Hazeldean Sale Rams cut more wool that is of higher value, on sheep with lower maintenance requirements, giving more profit per hectare.

7% Index explained and Trait Contribution to Profit

Hazeldean Genetic Trends over the last 10 years. Hazeldean has far heavier fleeces than the average, that are also finer than the average and with indexes far above the average of the breed. Click to view data.

The 2016 Hazeldean sale rams will again be amongst the top end of all industry 2015 drop rams. The average ASBV’s across the whole sale team will again be far above industry average for fleece weight, fibre diameter and the FP+, MP+ and DP+ indexes. They will greatly increase fleece weight and improve wool quality.

It would be very hard to find a line up rams elsewhere with the type of performance of the Hazeldean rams. The spread of breeding values on all 2016 sale rams are industry leading, with many trait leaders for at least one or more trait, and coupled with the type and style of the rams, balanced to boost your bottom line.

Rams will be available for private selection following the sale or any other time by appointment.

Selecting the right ram.....read more

click here to find out how to use ASBV's & Indexes
click here to find out more about Merino Select Indexes
Pdf file Pocket Guide - an easy to understand guide to using ASBV's

Watch interviews with clients & industry experts about why they use Hazeldean genetics

Hazeldean clients excel in Peter Westblade Memorial Merino Challenge...read more

The Hazeldean Breeding Policy

The special treatment of small groups through shedding and provision of artificial rations is at odds to the philosophy of the stud. To give accurate and meaningful measurement information, it is necessary to evaluate animals by running them in large contemporary groups under conditions equivalent to those experienced in the world of commercial wool growing.

Hazeldean therefore runs its stud operations along the lines of a commercial wool growing and breeding enterprise.

Hazeldean bases its selection decisions and grading for sale on a measurement system that has been in place for many years. Measurement, when applied with common sense, significantly improves the accuracy of selecting for heritable traits of economic importance such as fleece weight and fibre diameter.

Hazeldean Flock Health Status

The Hazeldean flock is assessed under the National Johne's Disease Market Assurance Program and holds a status of Monitored Negative 3 Vaccinated ( MN3-V).

The Hazeldean flock is also accredited as Brucellosis free.

Please note
Although Hazeldean employs best practice procedures in livestock husbandry and does it's best to ensure every animal catalogued for sale is free from disease, internal parasites and external parasites it does not guarantee that any sale animal is free of disease, internal parasites or external parasites.

Semen Interests

Hazeldean retains 100% semen interest and marketing rights on all rams sold including if the ram is onsold, however this does not stop the purchaser from collecting and using semen in their own flock. The rams are sold with full physical ownership to the buyer. If Hazeldean decides to collect and market semen from any ram sold, we will arrange and pay for transport and collection costs, and organise a suitable time to collect the ram.