Tuerong Valley’s supreme Corriedale exhibit with Kate Methven and Damien Goodman.

CARCASE quality and fertility reigned supreme in the Corriedale feature show at Hamilton’s Sheepvention Rural Expo yesterday.

Judge Richard Archer awarded the supreme breed sheep to Tuerong Valley Corriedale’s 14 month-old ram hogget, ahead of Sweetfield Corriedale’s champion ewe and her triplets at foot.

The Tuerong Valley ram was later judged reserve supreme longwool ram and the Sweetfield dam was sashed supreme longwool ewe.

The ram is believed to be the first supreme Corriedale at Sheepvention to also have a full set of Australian Sheep Breeding Values, but Mr Parker said the sheep won for his fleece quality, loin, hindquarter and stance.

“He had a nice quality of wool and he is a lovely balanced sheep; he stood very well behind.”

The ram had a noticeably well-developed loin and Mr Archers said” “that’s what got him there to be honest.”

“There was some nice sheep there, but he stood the best from standing behind naturally; a lovely loin on him.”

Mr Archer said more improved carcases were being seen in Corriedales, driven by the sheep meat markets.

“Objective measurement is driving it, but it is caused by the market.

“A good shaped lambs, it doesn’t matter what breed it is, is accepted by all the abattoirs; so you’ve got to have a good loin on them and they will accept them, Corriedale or any breed,” he said.

He said objective measurement and selection for muscle is starting to change the past disfavor for Corriedales among meat buyers.

Mr Archer said he gave the champion ewe sash to a big ewe with triplets from Bron Ellis’ Sweetfield stud.

“Fertility is probably number one in all the profitability gross margins.”

The Tuerong Corriedale ram rated 145.57 on the Sheep Genetics Maternal Wool Production Plus (MWP+) index, with ASBVs of 4.75 for post weaning weight, -0.29 for maternal weaning weight, 1.62 for yearling gross fleece weight, -2.65 for yearling fibre diameter, +0.17 for post weaning eye muscle depth, -1.22 for post weaning fat and +0.01 for weaning rate.

Tuerong Valley Corriedales principal Kate Methven and her fiancé Damien Goodman are based at Branxholme in south-west Victoria. She said the stud was started in 2016 and has about 80 ewes, based on Blackwood blood.

She said they had chosen to base sheep selection on visual assessment for structure as well as genetic selection and ASBVs for fleece, carcase and reproduction traits. The winning ram made into the show team for his great carcase shape. After show preparation feeding, the ram has an estimated fleece diameter of about 26 micron and weight about 95-100kg, Kate said.

“He is not a particularly tall sheep, but he still has great weight behind him, he’s got a good eye muscle and a good even fleece.”

She said genetic selection for early growth and muscle has enable her to join about half of their ewe lambs at seven months of age and they scanned at 120 percent in-lamb this year. Another selection focus is lowering fleece micron.

“With ASBVs we have the ability to increase growth, fat and muscle to get those carcase traits within a Corriedale and get the micron down.”

Rams will be offered this year in a 10 December sale in conjunction with Blackwood Corriedales, with whom the stud has an informal partnership to promote and market Corriedales. The rams generally sell into crossbred and composite flocks to lower fleece diameter, Kate said.

“There is a big (supply) gap in 22-24 micron in the wool market and Corriedales have the ability to fill that gap, especially with the lack of broad Merinos now and a lot of crossbreds getting broader.”

Peter Blackwood said the right Corriedale rams that suit the market are still selling; sires with 22-24 micron fleece and structure, and good carcase traits.

He said most composite sheep producers are familiar with selecting sheep based on data and ASBVs.

“So they already know what data is, so if I want to crack into that market I have to have data.

“The data is essential; if they want Corriedales, they want the data to back up their decisions.”

Peter said using a Corriedale over a composite ewe will lower the fleece diameter in the progeny so shearing will start to be more profitable rather than costly.

“It will generally bring ewe size down, so they can run more per hectare, and what it also does is put hybrid vigour in, so you’re getting a boost there.”

Peter said Kate and Damien live around the corner from the breed’s ‘Mr Figures’ Jim Gough, who was his mentor.

“We started with Goughy as our mentor and now it has done the circle back to Branxholme.”