Southdown Sheep Society, NZ

[Story by Sally Rae]
 

Southdown breeders Matt Chisholm (left), of Omakau, and Dave Robertson, of Oamaru, discuss the attributes of the breed. 

Matt Chisholm is the new ram on the block in the world of stud sheep breeding – and he could not be happier.

On Monday, Chisholm – a familiar face on television and an advocate for mental health, having publicly opened up about his struggles with depression – will head to North Otago to sell a ram from his newly established Southdown stud The Land.

The Cordyline Southdowns ram fair will be like no other, held in the grounds of Brookfield Park, a Heritage New Zealand category 2 listed property which featured in the New Zealand House and Garden tour in 2019.

Built on the outskirts of Oamaru by renowned local architect Thomas Forrester for original owner John Gilchrist, the first mayor of Oamaru, it is now owned by Jennifer (JJ) Rendell, who since buying the property in 2003 has created an imaginative garden retreat surrounding a restored Victorian homestead.

Cordyline Southdowns, owned by North Otago couple Dave and Abby Robertson, will offer about 40 rams. There are also six entries from John and Margaret Macaulay’s Tahrua stud in South Canterbury, and Chisholm’s solitary offering of a ram he has dubbed Blair, after prominent Southdown breeder Blair Robertson.

“I’m not sure if it’s an exciting day for … Blair, he doesn’t really know what’s coming. It’s a hell of an exciting day for me because I’m going to market and really going to test where we’re at,” Chisholm said.

Chisholm, who grew up in Milton and Oamaru, had had a longtime interest in livestock and said it was now a privilege to be part of the stud breeding world.

“I was always going to be some kind of farmer, in inverted commas. I was always going to come back to some small amount of land. I couldn’t shake it, as much as I tried. I couldn’t get away from it,” he said.

During the latter stages of living in Auckland, when he was battling with since much-publicised depression, he would “get on Google and research up the wazoo”.

He had always liked the look of Southdown sheep and, after reading their story, fell in love with the old pure breed which had “stood the test of time”.

The Southdown is the oldest of the terminal sire breeds in the United Kingdom, and originates from the native sheep which have roamed the South Downs in the South of England for many hundreds of years. It was developed into a fixed type in the 18th century.

Chisholm had discovered the breed was “making a real comeback”, particularly for hogget mating, and he also had less-commercial reasons for wanting them in his paddock.

“For me, it’s basically about looking after myself and my mental health. I just want to walk around them and feel good about looking at good animals. They’re really commercially viable, it’s ticking all my boxes,” he said.

Chisholm and his wife Ellen are living in Omakau with their two young sons Bede and Finn, and baby daughter Bree who arrived in early October. They are building a house on their 29ha block of land at Chatto Creek, in the heart of rural Central Otago.

Chisholm founded his stud with the purchase of six ewes from Blair and Sally Robertson’s Merrydowns stud and five ewes from the Cordyline stud. When his first ewes arrived, it was “like a midwinter Christmas” for him.

Admitting to having an obsessive nature, no longer was he going to bed thinking about what the biggest current affairs story he could tell was. Instead he was thinking about lambing percentages and the likes.

“It’s quite mad,” he said.

“Blair” the ram was the progeny of an in-lamb ewe bought from Merrydowns.

“It’s a bit unfair because I didn’t breed him. It’s got my ear tag in it, really its a Merrydowns sheep,” Chisholm said.

Originally he had planned to breed from “Blair” but he later decided to sell the ram and purchase some new blood.

Next year, he might have about 50 ewes to the ram and, in a couple of years, he reckoned he might have 15-20 rams to sell.

“All I really want to do is just do something that I love. If I can sell a couple of rams a year to real red-blooded legitimate farmers, I’ll be chuffed.”

Chisholm acknowledged he had never been happier, even if it did mean he spent “far too much time” moving a couple of rams from paddock to paddock.

He felt very grateful that he had got to a position in life where he could make a certain amount of money doing the things he needed to do, which then opened up time to hang out with his family, and his land, “and have great conversations with good buggers”.

As his “serious work” was winding down for the year, Chisholm headed to West Otago on Tuesday this week for the Merrydowns ram sale, which offered both Southdowns and Romneys.

He was already familiar with some Southdown breeders — he did a talk during a Southdown Sheep Society’s southern tour earlier in the year, and he played rugby for Lawrence with the society’s president Don Murray many years ago.

Farmers were great; they liked that he was into sheep and wanted to know why, he said. They were also great at explaining things to him and he reckoned he quadrupled his knowledge in an afternoon.

Over several cans of Coke — Chisholm has been sober for more than a decade — he talked to “a lot of good buggers”— “mixing with my clan”, as he put it — and, as he drove away, he realised that was why he had “come home”.

Chisholm was delighted to be taking part in the Cordyline sale, saying Dave Robertson had “all the knowledge”, produced really good sheep and it was being held in a great location.

“I feel just bloody chuffed that he’s not laughed me out of the province and he’s invited me along.”

Veteran Southdown breeder John Macaulay was going to “bust out” his saxophone at the sale.

Dave Robertson quipped the ram sale could be “almost like a wedding”.

“I don’t know what it’s going to be.”

The motto was it was the latest version of an enduring breed.

“I can’t take any absolute credit for the stock I have, a whole lineage of Southdown breeders come before me,” he said.

It was important to keep purebred sheep “going forward” and he liked having both new breeders, such as Chisholm, and older, established breeders such as Mr Macaulay who had been involved in the Southdown breed since 1961.

For Mr Robertson, his aim was to continually try to breed better sheep while also trying to be more inclusive with other breeders.

“We need to work together to breed better sheep.

“I’ve always just tried to have an enjoyable atmosphere for myself, family and friends and ram clients. We’ve just got to keep it real. The other theme is farmers are real people, they’ve got real problems.

“[We’re] just trying to eat some genuinely good meat and see some genuinely good stock and keep everything in real time.”

Recently a successful Central Southdown Breeders Club day was held at the home of the Mapua Stud, Andrew and Louise Christey at Southbridge.

The aim was for breeders to bring their ram hoggets, that are entered in the Canterbury Ram Fair, or their own on farm sales that have the potential to be stud sires to be seen by everyone.

There were 38 rams on display, from Blenheim in the North, to Oamaru in the South, and about 40 people, including our New Zealand President, ( judging at the Canterbury A & P Sheep Event the following day) with a number of Stud stock agents also attending.

A fantastic lunch was provided by the Club.

Thanks go to Andrew and Louise for a great day.

The 2021 NZ Southdown Society Flockbook (Volume 90) is now available to be viewed and/or downloaded on our Flockbooks page 

We have also made all the breeders contact details available, so if you ate looking to source flock rams you can probably find a breeder in your area. These can be found uder the contact section in the navigation menu above or by visiting the ‘Contact the Breeders‘ page.

The Robertsons, of Merrydowns Romney and Southdown Stud near Tapanui, are (centre) Sally and Blair Robertson and two of their three children, Stella (3) and Jack (17).

The Robertsons were not meant to continue sheep farming.

In 1998, the West Otago couple were advised to go dairying. It would be more lucrative. But it was the dual-purpose Romney all the way to the bank.

“The accountant thought we were crazy,” fourth generation sheep farmer Blair Robertson said.

“We sacked the accountant and got a new one.”

Borrowing to buy the family farm at Waikoikoi between Tapanui and Gore has meant huge debt servicing and it has been a tough grind for the past 20 years, but they are living their particular dream.

“It was bred into us, and I knew that’s what I wanted to do,” Mr Robertson said.

The Merrydowns Romney and Southdown Stud celebrated its 100th anniversary of breeding romneys this year.

When they took over the farm, the Robertsons had about 300 stud ewes. An injection of 450 Romney ewes from a Pahiatua breeder helped get them going. Now they have about 1200 stud ewes.

Having initially sold 50 rams a year, they now, on average, sell 500 Romney and Southdown rams, 243 of them offered for sale at their 12th annual December sale, which was held last week.

The top-priced $5000 Merryvale Romney ram, bought by Andy Denham, of Dunback, was bred by a fifth generation Robertson farmer, Blair and Sally’s son, 17-year-old Jack. Merryvale was the original name of the family stud.

The average overall ram price was $1380, the highest priced Romney going for $1420 and Southdown for $1240.

“It was a good sound sale. There were plenty of rams to choose from, and rams there for every budget,” Mr Robertson said.

In 1999, the Robertsons took another punt in re-establishing their Southdown stud that the family began in the 1960s.

Historically, the Southdown was one of the most important of the British breeds for fleece, meat and improvement of other breeds. They were popular in the 1950s but had gone out of fashion.

“When the Southdowns started, a lot of studs had come on the market. We bought them, and over five to six years built it up to 500 ewes.”

It now has 800 ewes and the largest flock in New Zealand and consequently the world.

It had to be a “bloody good ram” before it was allowed on the place “and they’re bloody hard to find”, Mr Robertson said.

Hence the Southdown with the Aussie twang that they imported from Tasmania in January.

Mr Robertson said he had always had a clear idea of where the stud was heading, but it had taken a family effort to get there.

Mrs Robertson, a geography teacher at Menzies College in Wyndham, and off a Millers Flat sheep farm, met her husband at the former Raes Junction Hotel on the border between Otago and Southland, in 1997.

Funnily enough, he was just back from a ram sale, and was the sober driver, but was flying out to North America the next day to take up a six-month scholarship.

They kept in touch and 23 years and three children later, Mrs Robertson is still teaching, and they are still farming with Mr Robertson doing the bulk of the work himself with the help of Jack, who still has another year at school.

He has high hopes that their daughter Jess (18), with her strong marketing bent, will also get involved in the family farm.

“That would be my dream. A strong family business with everyone head of their own department, to keep it going as a family.”

The current poor wool prices were not acting as a deterrent to breeding sheep with high quality fleece for the Robertsons.

“We’ve always bred for wool. Most people are trying to breed it off, but (from the animal welfare point of view) wool is what keeps the animal alive.

“We think we are right on the cusp of everything coming right with wool from the environmental point of view.

“There’re generations of Kiwis who know nothing about wool. We’ve got to be pushing its sustainability. It’s growing while you’re sleeping.”

By Sally Rae

Jess (18), Jack (17), Blair and Sally (holding Stella, who is nearly 3) Robertson, at home at the Merrydowns stud in West Otago.

Back in January, some unusual cargo arrived on the tarmac at Dunedin Airport.

It was a Southdown ram, Kirkdale 36-18, which was flown on a passenger flight from Auckland, having previously made the trip over the Tasman from the Kirkdale stud in Tasmania.

The ram was bought by West Otago stud breeders Blair and Sally Robertson, of the Merrydowns stud, at Waikoikoi, who have the world’s largest Southdown stud.

Mr Robertson judged at a show in Geelong two years ago and was greatly impressed by the Kirkdale entries — Australia’s second-oldest Southdown stud, which was established in 1884 and is now run by fifth-generation Andrew Hogarth.

The team — from lambs to rams and ewes — was “awesome” and, while there, Mr Robertson offered to buy two of the rams, but the deal did not work out.

A Southdown ram, imported from Australia by Blair and Sally Robertson, arrives on the tarmac at Dunedin Airport in January.

He told Mr Hogarth to keep them in mind for next year and, when he rang him in September last year, Mr Hogarth sent him some videos, photographs and pedigrees, and he selected three rams.

Of those three, Mr Hogarth was keeping two for himself and offering the third at his on-farm sale. So Mr Robertson asked if he could buy 36 — one of his keeper rams — which he felt was the pick of them.

Initially reluctant, Mr Hogarth asked for a week to think about it before agreeing to sell the ram and Mr Robertson told him to put him “on the next plane from Melbourne”.

Kirkdale was not a big stud but Mr Hogarth was a “real stockman” who “thinks along the same lines as us”, Mr Robertson, a fourth-generation stud breeder, said.

The ram was the best he had seen since he paid $14,000 for a ram from Brent Macaulay’s Maclaka stud in 2014. It was sired by an Australian ram he liked, Mr Robertson said.

His latest acquisition had “a decent set of feet and legs to start with”, along with the basic commercial traits — good hindquarter, muscling, depth and spring of rib.

Despite not seeing the ram in the flesh until he arrived at the airport, Mr Robertson said he had seen enough from the videos and also from Mr Hogarth’s other sheep.

“I’m really visual — I see lots of things other people don’t see.”

Kirkdale 36-18.

It was first sheep to be flown into Dunedin for about 20 years, and it was a “bloody comical” scene when the crate was being unloaded.

Travelling had no effect on the ram.

“You wouldn’t have known he had been anywhere. He’s that sort of sheep — just a grunter.”

He put the ram out with 185 ewes and he marked them all and came out of the ewes “as good as he went in”.

He believed the ram was going to be good for the sheep industry, particularly Southdowns, giving a straight outcross with a pedigree that was all Australian blood.

With the Maclaka sire, the Merrydowns stud — which has more than 700 ewes — had Australian blood, so it was “like with like” and not just a random selection.

He was a very similar sheep to the Merrydowns sheep and that was the key to try to find something like that.

It was not often in a lifetime you saw a ram that could make a significant difference and, if you did, then you should buy it, he said.

He was looking forward to seeing how he bred and it was likely the stud would retain five or six sons.

The benefits of using Southdowns included early maturing and the early mean kill; all their commercial lambs were killed at 20kg before lockdown, meaning there was room either to feed the ewes more or buy cattle or store lambs.

But lockdown was a major problem for a lot of farmers who still had lambs on and could not get them killed, Mr Robertson said.

The early mean kill date was critical for large commercial operations to get as many lambs as possible off the ewe as soon as possible.

Southdowns were ideal for hogget mating — “if you go to the trouble of putting your hoggets in lamb, you might as well get a decent lamb” — while the ewes were also very efficient over the winter.

He and his wife — who also have a Romney stud with about 1000 ewes, plus commercial ewes — were passionate about the sheep industry and the breeding industry, he said.

For them, it had to be “a package” — “there’s got to be figures but there’s also got to be a sheep. You can’t have one without the other,” Mr Robertson said.

A lot of modern sheep breeds had never been tried and tested; Southdowns had been culled for generations for those commercial traits of muscling and early maturing, the same as the Romneys which had been culled for centuries for their traits, he said.

In the 1950s, there were about 1200 stud Southdown flocks in New Zealand but they went out of fashion later on; there were now about 63 flocks and they were growing in popularity. Australia had also seen a resurgence in interest.

He believed there was a better type of Southdown in Australia, one that was more traditional, with more spring of rib and sounder, Mr Robertson said.

The family — which includes daughters Jess (18) and Stella (nearly 3) and son Jack (17) — were also “bloody passionate” about wool and took pride in producing quality fibre. Their Romney ewes shore about 7.5kg.

But the state of the wool industry was a “bloody disaster” and he implored consumers to stick to natural fibres such as wool, silk and cotton, rather than using synthetic products.

There were generations of the urban population who knew nothing about wool and were not aware of the benefits of it; they needed to be educated about those benefits and synthetic products taken off the shelf. If people were genuinely interested in the environment, then they should be demanding natural fibres, Mr Robertson said.

North Otago A&P Association stalwart Dave McClea was remembered during a special event at this year’s show.

The 157th North Otago show included a Southdown feature show in memory of Mr McClea who died in May last year.

He and his wife Pam had run their Charleston Southdown stud at their sheep and cropping farm at Kakanui.

When he retired from farming in 2002, Mr McClea’s dispersal sale at the showgrounds attracted buyers from across New Zealand. Three of the ewes equalled the record Southdown price of $1800.

Mr McClea’s service to the association, which began in 1980, was acknowledged with life membership in 2007.

While helping with the trade space, the plough he helped design for burying electric cables for powered sites was dubbed the ‘‘Davy Dig’’.

Hook breeder Chris Medlicott was delighted to win the David Simpson Cup with his Southdown ewe lamb, the breed featured in memory of the late Dave McClea.

Hook (South Canterbury) Southdown breeder Chris Medlicott, who won the David Simpson Cup with his ewe lamb, said it was ‘‘extra special’’ because of the connection with Mr McClea.

‘‘He was a good guy.’’

The two had bought rams from each other over the years, Mr Medlicott said.

He believed the standard of sheep at the show was better than he had seen in Oamaru for a while.

‘‘Everything’s pretty good with the sheep industry at the moment.’’

Retired breeder and butcher Butch Gordon, who presented the Wool Cup to Five Forks’ Jeff Thompson for his Border Leicester ram, said it was a great example of the breed.

And Maheno Suffolk breeder Kerry Dwyer, who won the Meat Cup, was ‘‘doing a great job to keep the meat breed going’’.

Young people should show their livestock as a learning process, looking at other people’s breeds to compare what they were doing and noting what they needed to do to reach those standards, Mr Gordon said.

The supreme sheep award was presented by South Canterbury judge John Macaulay to Mr Dwyer for his Suffolk ewe.

‘‘There are some very good sheep here — great examples of the respective breeds. They’re a credit to you guys who have stuck at it.

‘‘We’ve got encourage young breeders … us old buggers have got to go out of our way to encourage these young buggers on board.’’

Alister Hall, left, and his brother Rob had a day to remember at the Winton A&P Show.

Alister Hall, his brother Rob and daughter Teegan had a special family moment at the Winton A&P Show on Saturday.

For the first time, the brothers each had a supreme winner at the same show. Alister’s Friesian cow won the Supreme Dairy Animal Award and Rob’s Southdown ram was judged Supreme Sheep. The day got better for Alister when the Friesian was named the show’s Supreme Exhibit.

Teegan added to the occasion by receiving a $1000 first year agricultural scholarship from the show organisation.

[Read full article here]

SECOND ON-FARM: Tracey and Andrew Powdrell (pictured) with some of the Turiroa Tiger rams that will be up for auction on their on-farm sale on December 12. The couple are rapt with the quality of their up to 115 lineup, across four varieties.

Turiroa Stud near Wairoa will host their second on-farm terminal ram sale on December 12. They will have up to 115 big, meaty Southdowns, Tigers, Suftex and Belsuftex rams for sale by auction.

This year, Andrew and Tracey Powdrell have the first of their Beltex cross progeny available for sale.

“Beltex are renowned for a high bone to meat ratio and increased yielding percentages,” Andrew said.

“They are moderate framed meat machines with a huge loin and back end.”

Turiroa Belsuftex Rams comprise 25 percent Beltex, 75 percent Suftex.

“We were looking for something to thicken up the Suftex and get them maturing earlier,” Andrew said.

“The cross has worked very well, with the added advantage of a black face.”

He said the Beltex cross genetics had exceeded their expectations.

“They are born small and hardy and hit the ground running. The muscling doesn’t develop until the lambs are a few weeks old.  “We have no lambing trouble with them whatsoever. “Even the Belsuftex ewe lambs that lambed as hoggets were fine,” Andrew said. “The feet have been great too with no issues. We see these Belsuftex rams as leaving early maturing progeny off the hills at 15-17 kg carcase weight. ”

“We will continue to blend the Beltex genetics into our Suftex to thicken them up and we can’t wait to see how the progeny perform out on the farms in different environments.”

Turiroa will also have Suftex, Southdown and Tigers, a Southdown, South Suffolk cross.

“The Tigers perform well because they have the best of the Southdown characteristics of a deep, meaty body with the advantage of the brown face for easy identification among the progeny. They have lots of Hybrid Vigour and fertility with many clients reporting higher scanning percentages in their early mob than their m/a mob which is pleasing to see the fertility come through.”

The Powdrells have been mating their stud ewe hoggets for 20 years and built up a really good fertility in the flock.

“We are looking forward to catching up with old and hopefully some new clients on December 12.

“We are really pleased with the strong team of rams we have coming forward to sale, with our key criteria of early maturing and good feet really evident in the rams.”

The sale starts at 11am on sale day.

Visitors from North Otago (from left) Martin Parsons and Ross Nimmo look at Romney and Southdown rams on sale at the Merrydowns stud.

Although it is only a couple of weeks into the Otago and Southland ram sales season, early indicators are the numbers are looking good for buyers and sellers.

Blair and Sally Robertson, of Merrydowns Romney and Southdown Stud, and the Otago Southland Coopworth sale in Gore were some of the first off the auction block last week.

PGG Wrightsons livestock genetics representative Callum McDonald said the ram sales season had just started.

‘‘However, indicators are showing it will be strong,’’ Mr McDonald said.

‘‘The rams are good quality, with good performance and are well sought after.

‘‘Merrydowns’ average was $1585 for Romney rams and $1167 for Southdown rams.’’

Fourth-generation stud sheep breeder Blair Robertson, from the Merrydowns stud at Waikoikoi, enjoyed a strong on-farm sale in West Otago last week for a catalogue of 229 Romney and Southdown rams.

The top priced Coopworth ram at the Gore sale last week was sold by George and Fraser Fletcher for $2300 and the average price was $1425.

‘‘They are good rams that ticked the boxes and people have the confidence to pay the money.’’

Carrfields livestock agent Roger Keach said while it was early in the ram sale season for Southland and Otago, a record was set for a Dorset Down ram in Cheviot last week.

‘‘It was offered by Colin Smith, of Bankhead Stud, Rangiora, and bought by Ian Stevenson, of The Gums Partnership, of Cheviot, for $17,500,’’ Mr Keach said.

He said the record price for selling a ram was $41,000, set more than 25 years ago.

A top price of $8500 was achieved at the Merrydowns Romney and Southdown ram sale last week.

Jack Robertson (left), of Merrydowns stud, chats with Trevor McCall, of Charlton.

Mr Robertson was pleased with the prices at the 11th on-farm sale at Waikoikoi last Tuesday.

‘‘It was a successful sale.

‘‘The average prices was $1425 overall, and the top ram, a Romney, was $8500, which went to Dean and Fiona Addenbrooke, of Ruakiwi, Tuatapere,’’ he said.

‘‘He was a very good quality ram, well balanced, with beautiful wool and good performance data.’’

The price received compared favourably with last year’s top selling ram, a Southdown, which sold for $7000.

There were 70-80 buyers registered, which was on par with previous years, and 85 Southdown rams and 144 Romney rams offered.

The Gore Ram Fair will be held at the Gore showgrounds on January 21 and 22.

Doug McCall, a brother of the owner, and judge Eualie Thwaites, with the Southdown ram which won the Supreme Sheep Award at the Southland A&P Association’s 150th Show in Invercargill on Saturday.

A cricket game at Waikoikoi prevented Ross McCall from being on hand to receive the trophy for the Supreme Sheep Award at the Southland A&P Show in Invercargill on Saturday.

McCall, who along with his wife Tracey are sheep breeders at Waikoikoi, was playing for his local cricket club. However, the luck he had at the show didn’t stretch to Waikoikoi and the home team lost to Central Western.  

He and his brother Doug, of Benio, brought the family’s entries to the show on Saturday morning and then Ross returned home.

The Southdown ram, owned byMcCall, and Tracey and David Somerville, of Pine Bush, won four awards on Saturday – Supreme, Age Group, Champion Southdown and Meat Cup. 

“He was a point off winning the supreme award at the Wyndham show [in December],” said McCall, a fifth generation farmer.

Winning the top award on Saturday provided hi m with his fourth supreme title at shows.

“It’s a big honour winning at the 150th show.”  

His brother Doug said the ram had strong qualities. 

“He’s got good hindquarters, good loin, good bone and well balanced.” 

Saturday was the first Southland A&P Association Show McCall had entered sheep in since the annual event was moved from the Invercargill Showgrounds 10 years ago. The main reason for his absence was that it clashed with him playing cricket for the Waikoikoi club, of which he became a life member in January.

“I’ve been playing cricket for 33 years.”