19/08/2025
On the Hunt for a Ram!!
One of our Sponsors at The COBBER Supreme Stock Dog Challenge
Toland Poll Merino will have you covered!
As one of the leading Poll Merino Studs in Victoria Toland Poll Merinos pride themselves in breeding the All Purpose Merino. Toland Poll Merinos aim to breed highly fertile rams with carcase characteristics to ensure your sheep reach maturity early and increase lamb survivability.
Please check out Toland Merinos using the links below:
https://www.facebook.com/tolandpollmerino
https://www.tolandmerino.com.au/?fbclid=IwAR2BH8zgVkS4leTRPR-nbc6tWeMY9QlxPzJv041xwcWvDq0DBNd2nJ99_3o
It is that time of year again. Time to check your current ram power and work out your needs for the current season.
It has been another tough season here at Violet Town with just over 100mm of rain falling up until the end of the month of May. This is a severe deficit for us and we know we are not alone! Without a proper Autumn we have had to feed everything again through lambing which has provided its own challenges.
We have decided to offer 60 of the best 2024 drop rams. All have been genetically tested and they will be lotted this week. I hope to release the catalogue for our 38th On Property Ram Sale next week, once the latest ASBV’s have been released from the August 21st run. This years sale will be held on Monday, the 22nd of September, at “Feltrim” and will not be on AuctionsPlus.
This year we put 700 merino wether lambs through containment pens due to the seasonal conditions. They went into the pens in February after being shorn (clearing $15 per head for wool) and they averaged 35kg liveweight. An average of $51 of feed per animal was fed and they averaged $195 per head before the price increase in June, leaving the property at over 50kg liveweight, if only we waited another month who knows what prices we would have received! This highlights the exceptional versatility of our genetics ensuring that the merino wether can still pay his way in tough conditions.
The SM index for the sale team is averaging 152.00. This is within the top 20% of the flock within Australia and therefore we can be confident that they will breed true to the index and help increase your flocks fleece weight, adult body weight and carcase characteristics. The average YFAT and YEMD is also sitting within the top 25% of the Australian flock and we know that these contribute to fertility and lamb survivability.
As of 2025 we will be reporting on extra carcase quality traits such as Intramuscular Fat (IMF) and Shear Force (SHFR5). We believe that the next step for the modern All Purpose merino is to focus on increasing the eating quality to create more demand on the supermarket shelves. This will allow producers to capitalise on market access for both sheep meat and wool.
We continue to focus on growth with Post Weaning and Yearling weights displayed in the catalogue.
We also continue to concentrate on animal health and welfare traits such as Early Breech Wrinkle (EBWR) and Late Dag (LDAG) breeding values.
If there is any other thing else you would me to highlight then please send through an email I can help with this.
Finally, we have completed the marking of this years lambs at the end of July with a DNA tissue sample taken for the full 50K analysis and pedigree analysis. We marked 120% lambs to ewes joined. We are very happy with this result as we did feed right throughout lambing which provided a few challenges but overall the ewes were great mothers and stayed with their lambs until they were old enough to come to the feed.
As always, we welcome any private inspections of the rams prior to the sale. We are not having the sale on AuctionsPlus this year so if you are unable to make the sale and would like to organise an inspection then please contact us and we will organise a time for you to inspect either the whole sale team or a selection of your choice.
We look forward to welcoming you on the farm in September.
Regards
Anna and Simon
Anna – 0438981605
Simon – 0427514695
www.tolandmerino.com.au
