Waimai Romneys breeding outside the box
The desire to create a low-input sheep is one of the driving forces behind north-west Waikato sheep breeder Alastair Reeves.
‘‘We want to create a romney that is low input in terms of labour and costs; things like not having to give a zinc bolus, not having to drench the ewes and pushing lamb drenching out further, and now we’re looking at low dag scores and clean britches,’’ he says.
‘‘We’re looking at low methane too, considering the issues farmers face around greenhouse gases. While there are possibly a lot of different ways of reducing methane levels, such as feed inhibitors and vaccinations, I believe genetics is going to be the low input way. We have done our second year of methane testing and hopefully next year we will be able to offer low methane rams at our sale.’’
Over the past two years, 370 Waimai
Romney rams have been put through AgResearch’s methane trailer, including Waimai Romney 651/19, who was the top ram, based on research EBVs, in New Zealand for low methane output in 2020.
‘‘It is interesting that Silver Fern Farms is about to launch a Zero Carbon Beef Brand, based on demand from customers, which will receive a premium in the market, with a lamb equivalent hopefully not too far away. AgResearch lead scientist on methane Dr Suzanne Rowe has proven over 10 years that selecting for low methane sheep doesn’t affect productivity,’’ he says.
Last year Waimai Romney sires averaged in the top 20 per cent for productivity on the New Zealand maternal worth index. ‘‘I’m taking a leap of faith with the methane, as a breeder, and hopefully one day it will be beneficial to my clients.’’
Alastair and his wife Ann, and mum Helen, farm 800 hectares in the Waimai Valley, including the home farm Hinerua and 200ha of leased land. Helen and the late John started the Waimai Romney Stud in 1956, and for more than 36 years the family has been continuously testing and breeding for facial eczema tolerance. Alastair was a co-founder, and is a past chairman, of the leading eczema genetics breeders group FE Gold.
The farm has 850 commercial breeding ewes and the stud includes 1150 SIL-recorded ewes.
While sheep are the main driver of the Reeves’ business, 400 Friesian bulls and 150 First Light Wagyu-cross dairy cattle give them diversity, and flexibility to mitigate summer dry conditions.
The Waimai Romney Stud’s third annual ram sale will be held on farm on Thursday, November 4, and will be livestreamed on the bidr sale platform. As in previous years, a ram will be sold for charity, with proceeds this year going to Rural Support Trust, after two years of donating to Will to Live.
Alastair is thrilled with this year’s ram crop and says the 120 romney rams are an even line with ‘‘heaps of meat and attitude’’. They have more WormFec Gold rams available this year, which shows the genetic focus on worm resistance is coming through with 103 of their 120 Waimai Romney rams having a star ranking. The Reeves also have 40 CharaBlack terminal sire rams on offer this year – his own Charollais-Hampshire cross.
‘‘Farmers are enjoying the ease with which their progeny lamb, their vigour at birth and their fantastic growth rates. While we aren’t being paid for it yet, I believe the CharaBlacks superior marbling in their meat, will one day make them a premium lamb carcass of the future.’’
Alastair says it’s early days. ‘‘Once again, that’s me trying to figure out what the future could look like. Why wouldn’t you want to eat some marbled lamb?’’
Alastair is unashamedly passionate about sheep, which need to be profitable because that’s part of New Zealand’s environmental story, he says.
‘‘We’ve got to live our values, not just talk about them. It’s important to me, that as farmers, we show leadership. It is important we lead environmentally in our own farming systems and in our businesses. I’m passionate about changing our mindset; we must stop thinking of ourselves as farmers and start thinking of ourselves as food and fibre producers who understand their customers and whose customers understand them. It’s important to start changing that mindset because I think it will change our behaviour,’’ he says.
‘‘We’re doing a lot of great stuff already, but we have to make sure we’re not just ticking boxes. From a genetics perspective, that’s why I’m passionate about the methane thing, because it does show leadership. My father did the same thing with facial eczema 36 years ago. Those guys took a punt in something they believed in, and it’s worked, to the benefit of the New Zealand sheep farmer. That’s a great example of genetics and people with foresight helping our industry get ahead.’’
John’s foresight lives on in a memorial scholarship awarded to a university student studying sheep genetics. Kayleigh Forbes is doing an honours degree at Lincoln University focusing on the links between methane, growth, and worm resilience and resistance.
Hinerua ranges from 25m above sea level to 165m on one of the lease blocks, and is winter wet and summer dry.
‘‘Our annual rainfall is 1350mm but it’s very uneven. It comes in for six months and then we don’t get it for six months, at least, that’s what it feels like.’’
The Reeves have been fencing and planting three small streams that feed into the Waimai Stream, which floods at least half a dozen times a year, as well as adding sediment traps on internal farm streams. About 37ha of the home farm has been retired into pines in the past six years with the intention to prune, thin and harvest as part of the overall sustainability of the property.
‘‘The overall aim is to slow the water down when we do get storm events from the headwaters of these streams. We’ve also retired about 15ha of native bush, and we have been planting anywhere from 1000 to 2500 natives every year for the past six or seven years, focusing on manuka, flax, cabbage, kanuka and ake ake.’’
The next generation of Reeves is paid to plant them. Sophie, 19, is in her second year at Lincoln studying agribusiness and food marketing, majoring in supply chain. George, 18, is in Year 13 at Hamilton Boys High School and Angus, 16, has two more years left at school.
Helen also still lives and works on the farm.
‘‘Mum’s very much a part of what we do here. It’s a family business. She’s a farmer through and through and it’s lovely to have her around.’’