223 Merino & Poll Merino Rams
Hazeldean, Cooma NSW

Dear Valued Clients and Woolgrowers,

As we prepare for our annual ram sale on October 18, 2024, we look forward to welcoming another member of the 7th generation into the fold in early October – a particularly busy Spring is upon us! Whilst we have our hands full, our commitment to producing top-tier genetics for the Merino industry is unwavering, focusing on objective traits and enhancing profitability.

We have a strong commercial focus in our breeding program, breeding a large number of rams for our own use in our commercial flock at Myalla. We see significant benefit in running the commercial flock alongside the stud with a ‘proof is in the pudding’ approach. This was further validated this year with the team of Myalla wethers coming out on top of the wool component of the Australian Merino Wether Trial for 2024.

In recent times, the wool market has faced its share of challenges and it’s understandable to feel a sense of stagnation. However, we firmly believe that adhering to the principles that have guided us through generations—focusing on quality genetics and long-term profitability—is the key to overcoming these hurdles. Our dedication to maintaining the integrity of our breeding objectives and ensuring that each ram we offer provides tangible, measurable, benefits to your enterprise remains steadfast.

The wool industry is on the cusp of transformative change, with several groundbreaking technologies set to make a significant impact. Among these are on-farm micron testing solutions like Zondii, which will revolutionize how we manage wool quality and efficiency both in the classing race and on the wool table. These advancements will enable more precise wool assessment and better decision-making, in line with our goal of enhancing the profitability of your wool production.

Additionally, the development of biological wool harvesting techniques is on the horizon. This approach has the potential to redefine wool harvesting, making it more sustainable, less labour-intensive thereby reducing stress on the sheep.

This year’s catalogue features the new industry standard selection indexes as developed by Sheep Genetics and MLA. A description of each index is included in this catalogue to assist you. Whilst they align with various breeding objectives, we recognize that they may not fully reflect our specific goals and those of our clients. To address this, we are collaborating with leading geneticists at AGBU and industry consultants to develop a custom index tailored to our breeding objectives. This new profitability index will be designed to enhance your bottom line whilst we continue to focus on traits that balance structure and wrinkle, ensuring that we continue to breed sheep that are not only profitable but also excel in essential characteristics from welfare, longevity and management perspectives.

We would encourage clients to be vigilant in analysing individual traits of importance when making selection decisions as well as considering the new indexes. If you would like further assistance with selection decisions please get in touch.

As we approach our sale, we are excited to share our latest rams with you—each one firmly representing our commitment to quality and innovation. Despite the current market conditions, the future of wool holds a lot of promise and we are dedicated to ensuring that our genetics continue to lead the way in driving profitability and excellence. We are proud to hold a Sheep Genetics 5 star data quality score which reflects our dedication to collecting and submitting the highest quality of data, meaning the breeding values generated on our rams are as accurate as possible.

You will notice this year there is a portion in the catalogue that are non mulesed. As a result of an increasing amount of clients requesting the option to purchase non mulesed rams we did not mules the rams that were breech wrinkle score 2 or less in the cradle at marking.

We invite you to join us on October 18th to inspect our catalogue of 223 rams and discuss how our breeding program can align with your goals.

Thank you for your continued support.

Warm regards,

Bea Litchfield, Ed Bradley and Jim and Libby Litchfield and the Hazeldean team.

We will also have drinks and dinner in Cooma at the Alpine Hotel the night before the ram sale, it is a great opportunity to catch up.

We will continue to deliver all rams to your door so please come in the comfort of your car and we will take care of delivery post sale.

Request a catalogue

Enquiries: 0428 314 838
Bea Litchfield 0427 933 103

Ed Bradley 0412 298 546

Jim Litchfield 0417 676 561

Pre-sale Registration Form

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.

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.