Muller merinos innovation-bred
Steve and Mary Satterthwaite of Muller Station talk to Pat Deavoll about their innovative breeding methods.
Muller Station is at the back of beyond, about as far from the main road as is possible to get in New Zealand.
It sits far up the Awatere Valley, 120 kilometres inland from Blenheim and 100km north of Hanmer. At 38,000 hectares, the property rises to above 2000 metres, and takes in the headwaters of the Acheron and Saxton rivers.
‘‘The family bought the property in 1965, says Steve Satterthwaite, who owns the property with his wife, Mary. ‘‘I went home after leaving school as a cowboy, went overseas for a few years, then returned as head shepherd. I took over as manager in 1980, then gradually took on the ownership from my parents.’’
Historically, Muller ran 14,500 merinos, but it is going through a transition stage of getting rid of the wethers, Steve says. This is to aid the rehabilitation of the landscape.
‘‘After the invasion of hieracium in the 1970s and 1980s the wether country’s capacity to carry sheep dropped from 10,000 to 4000. Even now we can’t look anyone in the eye and say the wethers aren’t doing damage. So we are taking them off and will run more cattle and ewes to make up for lost income. We are starting to see the dominance of hieracium wane. In another 20 years if that [trend] replicates itself across all the properties there could be the opportunity for the country to rehabilitate and for the next generation to put sheep back up there.’’
Despite the wether cull, the Satterthwaites remain dedicated to the merino breed. Until a decade ago, they bought their rams exclusively from a New Zealand breeder. But a trip to Australia opened Steve and Mary’s eyes to the potential for using Australian genetics to start their own stud.
‘‘At that stage, we were using a very well known Australian sheep classer called Stuart Hodgson to class our commercial sheep. We had already selected our top ewes, and with some advice from Stu, who told us what Aussie genetics were firing at the time, we bought two rams from Charinga Merino Stud in Victoria. We mated these two rams to 100 [each] of our top commercial ewes.’’
Australian farmers can start a stud by breeding up from their commercial base, Steve says. At the time, in New Zealand, you couldn’t. But he wrote to the New Zealand Merino Breeders Association, and the committee gave him the thumbs up. ‘‘We have since been able to upgrade to full registered stud status and from 2006 until 2017 have had full pedigree on every sheep in the stud. The thing that was so encouraging from all of this was that we immediately got predictability in what we were breeding. This was something we had been striving for and had been relatively disappointed with.’’
This success convinced Steve to use the first crop of two-tooth rams across his whole flock, and he has since seen steady improvement in wool quality, wool cut and conformation. ‘‘Historically we used to get a lot of fly strike . ... Now at tailing time we have no fly. This is from breeding wools that don’t smell. And the crimp and fibre alignment in the fleece is such that the wool dries out.’’ Muller also concentrates on the skin of the animal, Steve says. Their merinos used to be prone to tightness which in turn created the iconic merino wrinkles which stopped the wool from breathing when wet.
He says the reduction in fly strike is something they have only lately ‘‘picked up on’’. But during last year’s tailing, only half the recommended rate of chemicals was put on their lambs, and nothing was used on the ewes.
‘‘We are weaning at the moment, and we have not had a single case of fly,’’ he says, ‘‘And it has been quite the season for fly strike. We are starting to think this is a real attribute of what we have been doing by concentrating on wool quality to minimise the amount of chemical we have to use.
‘‘So our wools are almost organic, and there is not much of that around. The New Zealand Merino Company (NZM) has at times given a premium for [wool with] no chemical residue.’’
Muller has supplied NZM since the company’s inception. Steve says they are ‘‘strong advocates’’ of the company’s philosophy and feel the relationship is a good one.
‘‘Nowadays with the wool contracts that are about, the stability of the wool market means part of our income is assured. The contracts become very bankable because there is no volatility. We can go to the bank knowing what that income will produce for us every year, and if we wanted to borrow money, the bank would see those contracts as being very valuable.’’ Steve says since the early days of the Muller Station merino stud they have bought another 10 Australian rams. After the original two from Charinga, they began looking for an outcross because the genetics ‘‘were getting pretty infused.’’ They wanted an impact sire to do ‘‘something special’’ for the stud and were after a more dual purpose sheep. ‘‘We bought a ram called Desmond from a stud called Willandra in New South Wales. It had bred exceptionally well and is arguably the highest impact ram to be used in Australia in the last five years. He sold [$220,500] AU$200,000 worth of semen in Australia,’’ Steve says.
Steve says Desmond is a dualpurpose, double-copy polled ram with a moderate frame and a good wool cut. The ram has helped them go in the direction of the type of sheep they want to breed.
Steve and Mary sell their rams privately. They are so far from the merino hub it would be difficult to get people to come for an onproperty sale. Initially, they had no intention of selling rams, but it works well for them because the income allows them to outsource superior genetics.
‘‘When we first started we aspired to breed for ourselves, not for anyone else. But because the predictability of our rams was so good, people saw them and wanted them. We sell about 100 [rams] a year. I think this will grow.’’
The Satterthwaites were the farming winners of the Cawthorn Environmental Awards last year. Judges described them as ‘‘dedicated, innovative and efficient’’ farmers who are farming sustainably in a challenging high country environment.
We are weaning at the moment, and we have not had a single case of fly [strike].
Steve Satterthwaite