SPM News
2023 Newsletter
What we’ve been up to lately…
Our 22/23 harvest ran extremely late due to the spring rain and other extenuating weather conditions, causing barley to snap off the plant onto the ground. Though despite these conditions, our crops continued to yield well, and we were rewarded with great grain prices. Though we faced our fair share of challenges as everyone does during this period, if we could have a harvest like this one every year, we would be more than happy.
The previously mentioned spring rain provided great ground cover and pasture feed contributing to our ewe’s prime condition and setting optimal lambing conditions moving into the 2023 season. The ewes were scanned prior to lambing and all mobs scanned had an average of 93% ewes in lamb.
As of June, we have attended the Elders SA Stud Merino Expo in Burra. We displayed eight spring drop rams showing exceptional bone structure and growth, elite wool quality, and cutting ability. The rams were sired by Moorundie, One Oak Poll and Sandalwood Poll 610. The expo was well attended, and we were excited by the level of interest in our display. As for the rest of the year we are looking forward to attending the Hay Sheep Show in Hay on the 17th of June, The Australian Sheep and Wool Show in Bendigo from the 14th-16th of July, The South East Merino Field Day in Keith on the 19th of July, Our own annual Sandalwood Poll Merino On Property Ram Sale on the 28th of July and the Royal Adelaide Show in Adelaide from the 5th-8th of September.
As usual, all our rams were shorn in the first week of March and had their fleece weighed before the sale. Our muscle and fat data will be recorded through Stockscan Australia providing more figures and facts to help with your ram selection. All of these figures will be displayed in our sale day catalogue, available online and in hard copies through the post to those on our mailing list and handed out at Bendigo and on the day. If you have not received a catalogue by post before and you would like one, please contact us to join our mailing list. Though in exciting news we are pleased to announce we are offering our rams in single pens this year, making it easier to view the animal and making for less confusion on the day. The rams will be auctioned over the pen by Golding livestock services in conjunction with Nutrein and Elders starting at 12pm, as opposed to previous years where covid restrictions had taken place, again making for a smoother sale experience. Sale rams this year will be bred from Moorundie, Tamaluca, Sandalwood Poll 610, One Oak Poll, progeny from our new sire Trigaivale and a selection of our best Sandalwood poll genetics.
If you are receiving this newsletter, we would like to thank you for your ongoing support of Sandalwood Poll Merinos and hope to see you at our on-property sale on the 28th of July 2023 as always we hope you can stay for dinner, refreshments and “important” discussions. If you have any feedback, questions or queries regarding our sale day, expo showings or any of our farming practices please do not hesitate to contact us, we would love to hear from you.
Sincerely,
Sandalwood Poll Merinos Team
Strong future for Sandalwood
Stud principal Justin Boughen said they aimed to modernise their stud and continue to breed profit drivers for all their clients and the industry.
“We look forward to continuing to improve our genetics. Our sheep have good skin types, white wools with nourishment, long structure and heavy cutting ability, excellent carcasses and good doing ability.
However, we feel the type of sheep and breeding we are moving forward into the future deserves its own unique marketing and new branding,” Mr Boughen said.
“As a family we look forward to the future direction we are heading and have decided to rebrand Kamora & Netley Park to Sandalwood Poll Merinos with a new sale date.”
“We are very excited as a family to improve and present this type of Poll merino that can handle all corners of Australia. We breed profit drivers and believe that if we can make money out of our sheep, so can our clients.”
