Hard work brings Romney success

Press, 31 January 1986, Page 12

Hard work brings Romney success

Romney breeder Don Cameron looks at more than just performance records and over-all conformation when selecting stud sheep. “I look right into the sheep; I want to see all its good points, rather than pick out just the bad faults,” said Mr Cameron, whose intense attitude to sheepbreeding has helped carry him to the forefront of the Romney stud industry.

At only 35 years old, Mr Cameron and his wife, Diana, have cemented their position in the tough world of stud sheep breeding, after establishing the Claymoor stud just 13 years ago.

Confirmation that the Camerons had broken into the top sphere of Romney breeding came at the 1985 Royal show at Hamilton, where a Claymoor ram won New Zealand’s premier Romney event — the Blue Ribbon for the best ram hogget.

This was their first attempt at the Blue Ribbon and to add to their success a shorn ram won the supreme Romney ram. < Needless to say, the next crop of Claymoor rams is prebooked by stud and commercial farmers, from Hawkes Bay to Southland.

Don Cameron says he is very conscious of Claymoor’s position among Romney breeders and is determined to keep an open mind in the future direction of his stud. “Stud breeders must continually be improving their flock, otherwise they will be surpassed by others. "Attention to detail is important; studs can go downhill quickly in spite of inputs from the best sheep every year if breeders do not select carefully.”

Records of fleece weights and fertilitly were important when choosing sires, but stud breeders must also place emphasis on particular faults they want corrected or desired traits.

“Sheeplan is ideal as a tool, but the best computer for the sheepbreeder lies between his ears,” said Mr Cameron.

Mr Cameron said he always looked for the good points in sheep and then balanced these against the faults, rather than simply discarding sheep immediately because of certain faults.

“I tend to look for the good in anything, but there must always be a balance between good and bad. Faults, however, must never be doubled up."

The Claymoor stud was founded on 30 old ewes from the flock of Frank Chittock which was dispersed in the early 19705. Don Cameron had been stud shepherd for Mr Chittock and bought 22ha at Springston South in 1972 in his first step to farming on his own account.

The land was virtually virgin country, containing a lot of gorse, few fences and poor pastures. To help finance development, he worked almost full-

time off the farm and later bought another 25 ha and leased 32ha. As the stud flock grew the number of commercial ewes was reduced and stud numbers have stabilised around 350 ewes.

His breeding objectives were to produce sheep which were bigger, longer and had open faces compared with the Romneys of the late 19605, yet to still retain the heavy wool weights.

Rather than aim at a sudden improvement, Mr Cameron elected to take a more controlled approach to ensure the heavy wool weights were retained. Faults were corrected slowly over a period of six years by introducing sheep with the required characteristics.

Lambing percentage (lambs weaned to ewes mated) is now 152 per cent, compared with 120 per cent in the early

years, and the ewes average skg of wool, a figure which has remained stable.

The ram hoggets produce 4.5 kg of wool during the 29 weeks from January 1 to July 20.

An indication of the improvement in sheep size is the comparison in the length of the sires — the Camerons’ first ram measured 787 mm in length and the present sire was 1016 mm.

The Camerons have always been prepared to travel widely in the search for breeding stock and in recent years have bought rams from the Kelbrae stud of A. G. Beattie, of Gore.

Last year, they were members of a syndicate of four breeders which paid $30,000 for a Kelbrae ram at the Gore ram fair. The ram is mated with ewes from two Canterbury breeders for two cycles then travels to

Southland to service ewes owned by the other two partners. Earlier, Mr Cameron bought privately this ram’s twin brother, an animal which took the supreme Romney ram trophy at Hamilton for Claymoor. Don Cameron is confident that sheepfarming faces an exciting future, in spite of the recent setbacks, and is equally adament that young people still have the chance to succeed in the industry.