Rangeland Raised
What does Rangeland Raised mean?
Hardy, profitable & unpampered .
Never shorn. (You should NEVER - EVER need to shear a shedding sheep!!!)
Designed for commercial performance. Number of lambs weaned and kgs of lamb marketed/ha are key drivers.
Grass raised on the Rangelands.
Performance recorded on LAMBPLAN. Backed by 20 + years of objective data.
DNA tested.
Independently classed.
Rangeland Ready to go – bred like they ought to be!
Our Rangeland Raised Philosophies
We would like to detail some of our thoughts behind the Etiwanda White Dorper Rangeland Raised breeding philosophies to help ensure that our clients operations are highly profitable.
Optimum production is always much more profitable than maximum production. Bigger is not always better. Optimum production is the point at which net profits are maximised. Profit is what we really want to maximise. We need to focus on profit per hectare not per animal – two very different things!
With nearly a decade of benchmarking data under our belt, we have been able to increase our Gross Margin/Ha/100mm by 2.5 times – not a bad result for tough country out west.
There was a very interesting article in the July 2013 edition of the Acres magazine by John King looking at the profit from different sheep production systems in New Zealand. They looked at the profit of different sized ewes from 45 kg – 70 kg at different reproductive rates 110% - 170%. The interesting point was that the highest profit came from 45 kg ewes at 130% lambing out performing 70 kg ewes at 170% lambing.
Animals Fit Their Environment - to achieve optimum production, farmers must produce animals that fit their environment instead of feeding harvested and purchased feed to keep stock that don’t fit their environment in production. This very quickly takes most of the profit out of farming.
Etiwanda White Dorpers breed animal’s that can make the most efficient use of available resources with minimal inputs.
Rangeland Raised Rules
“Optimum production is always much more profitable than maximum production”
“The animals ought to be supporting the business, instead of the business supporting the animals!”
Moderate Size
Performance recorded, medium frame with good body length and muscle.
Easy-Fleshing
Ability to maintain good body condition, even on limited feed resources.
Volume & Capacity
Able to efficiently convert low quality forages into milk and meat, profitably.
Structurally Sound
Independently classed using visual assessment & ASBV’s.
DNA Tested
Entire stud white dorper flock is DNA tested.
Independently Classed by Andrew Hodgson
A bit about our classer.
Andrew Hodgson owns Shedding Sheep Australia (SSA), Australia's only livestock consultancy company dedicated to the breeding & management of shedding sheep breeds. SSA was developed in response to strong demand by sheep breeders on how to transition quickly and effectively from fibre to meat production, while maintaining a viable business.
SSA's key client objectives are to achieve maximum kilograms of lamb weaned per hectare while minimising costs such as labour and all the associated management issues with wool.
Andrew has a deep understanding & wealth of practical, hands on, experience in the sheep industry. He has worked extensively throughout Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific and both North and South America, both as an adviser and manager for large scale corporate sheep and cattle operations.
Andrew & all the Etiwanda crew are incredibly excited about the future of the Etiwanda flock and the shedding sheep industry in Australia!