adventures in breeding
Flock 11 ranged in size from 2,250 – 3,200 ewes with never more than 700 rams sold. Stud rams sold on-property, not at big city glamour sales. Every ewe and progeny continued to be pedigreed. When Ted Body took over around 1916, the basic flock and mating structure was reorganised.
Flock 11 was broken into 3 tiers:
Doubles – the elites or specials (700 – 1000 ewes), 7 different families to avoid inbreeding, hand-served and hand-lambed.
Seconds – denser, heavier sheep, correctively mated to long stapled rams in batches of about 120 ewes.
Thirds – long stapled, plainer ewes, correctively mated to heavier denser rams.
Flock 12 ranged from 6,900 to just over 10,000 ewes. 1,300 – 2,600 flock-type rams were sold each year. This general stud was more simple, divided basically into Bun 1’s and Bun 2’s, heavies and plains respectively. They were correctively mated in large syndicate mobs. Out of the 4000 rams bred from Flock 12 each year, 15-20 would make the grade and remain as stud rams, the rest offered for sale as flock rams.