Field Day acclaimed

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 1, Issue 20, 18 October 1983, Page 10

Field Day acclaimed

Local farmers were encouraged to use fleece weighing and hogget culling measures to increase the quality of their woOl clip at a wool Field Day held last week. Organised by Wrightson NM A, the afternoon seminar attracted more than 40 farmers to Feter McDonnell's Ngamokai Road property in Karioi. Wool production improvements were advocated through a variety of brief addresses, audio-visuals, demonstrations and question-and-answer sessions. Wrightson NMA wool manager, Allan Sturzaker, said the field-day was part of a national programme to make farmers aware of the importance of 'per head' performance. "Up until now it has been based on the 'numbers game' rather than performance," he said.

"This doesn't happen by chance though ... you need a systematic process to bring it about." "People are interested in improving their wool quality because they are under fairly tight financial conditions." The method put to the fajmers to achieve this improvement involves the removal of the bottom 25% wool-producing sheep in their hogget flock. A random selection of 20 sheep is used to determine the cut-off point, then this fleece weight is applied to the flock at its first shear. Wrightson's Wanganui wool division manager, Mr Garry Stent, said wool quality was genetic, and fleece weighing was the only way to find out which sheep were the biggest producers. "It has been done in stud flocks for years, but not in commercial flocks. Sheep culling costs little or nothing to achieve, and does increase returns," he said. "Fut simply — more wool means more money." The speed at which farmers could improve their flocks depended on the numbers they could cull. "It's better to do 50 this year rather than leave them and breed a lower quality flock from them."

Field-day host Feter McDonnell said the day had been worthwhile, and helpful. "Today has been a good day. It has been practical ... not above anyone's head." Raetihi farmer Richard Godfrey was impressed by the wool seminar. "I've learnt quite a bit today. There's nothing like seeing something done right in front of you." He appreciated the summary of the overseas wool marketing situation given by wool manager Allan Sturzaker, adding that — "half the time we don't know where our wool ends up."

Philip

Johnstone