Breeding Stock

The Petham Flock was established in 2004 with just 10 ewes. We have subsantially increased our flock form this solid foundation from our own breeding and bought in stock form selected Romney breeders. As the flock has expanded we have been very selective with what we have kept resulting in our discard rate being relatively high in relation to other flocks. On average we have had a turnover of 25% of our ewes per year. This method has brought quick results ensuring in a high performance flock producing top grade tegs.

We are now at the stage of being able to sell on our surplus of pedigree stock happy in the knowledge of it being of high quality breeding potential.

Since 2005 we have been recording the performance of the flock. Every animal has an individual record. For any sheep born or bought into the flock the record will include their Sire and Dam, age of birth, single/twin, breeder etc. We will record any health issues and problems. A thorough record of their breeding is kept too.
Now that we have been doing this for a number of years we have begun to build up not only a good picture of each individual animal’s performance the flock as a whole. For example we can see that giving the ewes a certain type of concentrate during the gestation period may or may not have a beneficial effect. We can also see if an individual animal performs better than its peers under certain circumstances.

For our home bred sheep we record their birth weights, if they were assisted at birth or needed help to suckle etc. They are then weighed again at 3 & 16 weeks. Each year we set a weight target, with a time limit, which is a minimum requirement for any lamb to reach to remain in the flock. This has allowed us to see overall improvements in the performance of the flock for the past three years. For example in 2009 we saw our lambs averaging a 35kg weight 2 weeks earlier than 2 years ago. Interestingly we have seen no loss of performance with the removeal of feeding creep during this period.

Obviously there are many factors that affect the performance of an individual animal or the flock as a whole therefore the longer we continue recording the better our results will be.

Ewes & Tegs & Ewe Lambs