Sheep breeders Mark and Joanne Stevenson will sell an entire line of purebred Dorset Down and South Dorset Down ewes at an on-farm dispersal sale at The Gums on February 10.
For more than 120 years the family has been providing genetics to the sheep industry firstly near Rangiora and then in Cheviot.
More latterly, they have juggled the management of five different studs —Dorset Downs, South Dorset Downs, poll merinos, quarterbreds and halfbreds — with running a farm.
The Stevensons run The Gums — a 920ha stud and commercial sheep property. Mr Stevenson’s semi-retired father, Ian, is still involved a few days a week, while mother, Trish, was a part of the stud in the past.
Soon the studs will be reduced to three breeds.
Mr Stevenson said they had looked at options and lost some sleep with making a difficult decision as there were a lot of family ties with the breed, but it felt good to have a plan ahead of them.
He said they were conscious previous generations of the family had put in so much work before them.
"We are farmers and we are business people, but we are also emotional people and there’s a lot of family ties with the breed. It’s been a 40-year chapter for the family that we are calling to an end. We are not saying goodbye to the breed completely as we still need terminal sires and will be supporting stud breeders to purchase them, but in terms of us holding on to that stud it’s come to a time that we have to make a decision and look forward."
He said they had enjoyed breeding Dorset Downs, but something had to give in their busy lives and they needed to continue to evolve.
"Joanne and I have two young kids too with Ted 9 and Lewis is 5 and with the complexities of five studs for us it’s about getting a bit more focus into the business. There is plenty on with the five studs and we’ve had to make the choice to sacrifice somewhere, but also give someone else the opportunity to take on the Dorset Downs, whether that’s current stud breeders or people thinking about getting into stud breeding coming along to purchase a line of ewes."
He said technology had created more work for breeders to identify good genetics and run a good operation in a competitive stud breeding business.
"That all takes time and we have to look for where we’ve got to get this farming business to and make it all work and maximise opportunities for the whole farm and make the most of that. We’ve got some hill country that does provide some development opportunities and we just have to look at it as what we need to do to make the most of the opportunities."
In the past investment in the breed has included the $17,500 purchase of a ram from Bankhead Stud in Cust.
Mr Stevenson said they were proud of the line of Dorset Downs they had produced and always believed in buying wisely to advance the breed.
The connection is strong with his brother Bryce also having his own Dorset Down stud while he was at the farm which was combined into The Gums stud in 2014. Young shepherd Emma Ashworth has also assisted in the day to day management of the breed.
Also exiting are the South Dorset Down ewes. They originated from a selection of Dorset Down ewes which developed into an offshoot as a result of demand for rams.
The best first cross ewe lambs were kept to set up a non-registered line in the mid-2010s.
Nearly 100 South Dorset Down stud ewes and 49 ewe lambs are in the dispersal sale catalogue, combined with 127 Dorset Down ewes and 47 Dorset Down ewe lambs.
The total of 318 ewes and ewe lambs will be sold from noon onwards on February 10.
South Dorsets will be sold in groups of eight to 15 ewes to encourage breeders or commercial farmers to bid for an even group of ewes and set up their own line.
Dorset Downs will be sold in single lots to cater for the needs of stud buyers. The Stevensons had announced their plan to disperse the stud early last year to give breeders time to consider their options.
Already there has been strong interest from new entrants as well as stud breeders who may take the option of thinning out the bottom end of their stud and bidding to bring in new bloodlines.
The Dorset Down stud was established under the Flaxton Stud in Rangiora when Stevenson senior took over the family farm with his brother, Graeme, in partnership in 1984.
In 2001 it was taken over by Ian and Trish just before they shifted to The Gums in Cheviot two years later and the five studs came with them.
Mr Stevenson said the focus had been on breeding commercially focused terminal sires that allowed their clients access to fast-growing and early-maturing terminal lambs.
"For us it’s really about helping to set up those farmers to make the most of that spring growth and get lambs away prime off Mum usually in summer dry environments. The lambs are gone, money is in the bank and the feed demand is down."
A third of the dryland farm is on flats and downs with the rest in hill country.
They manage the farm business for a summer dry environment, trying to cash in as much as possible over spring in a compressed system with the flats and downs run quite intensively.
Hill blocks ranging up to 100ha are managed more extensively.
The poll merino stud is the oldest, established in 1903 by his great-grandfather under the Flaxton Stud in Rangiora.
Over the years it has reduced in size to reflect a smaller merino market as a result of the Canterbury Plains being converted to irrigated dairy farms.
Mr Stevenson said the rams’ progeny produced a fleece of 18.9 to 19 microns targeting the Icebreaker contracts for socks and outdoor wear garments.
"We are trying to maintain a carcass and a good doing animal so we can winter the progeny and sell them in spring with good carcass weights and a valuable fleece. There’s got to be that balance there today. Breeding for this is a challenge but you just have to keep working at it."
Their halfbred flock, also started by his great-grandfather, is their largest stud, with about 80 rams sold each year. They are a mixture of stabilised and first cross animals with mostly Romney rams put over poll merino bloodlines.
He said there was good demand for the halfbred rams as Smartwool and other buyers had sent out a clear signal they wanted a finer end of the mid-micron animal and were less interested in stronger wool.
"We are selecting the finer end of those to enter in a stabilised flock made into a halfbred. On average with a halfbred first cross you will end up with with about 27 microns. But we are just selecting that finer end and have been able to stabilise those halfbreds at around 24 microns while maintaining quite a carcass sheep and a good lambing percentage."
The Stevensons’ commercial flock of about 1500 ewes is mostly halfbreds with some quarterbreds.
They are lambed in the hills alongside the stud ewes.
"We have to manage them how our clients manage them."
The quarterbred stud resulted from good productive ewes with wool which was too strong to fit into the halfbred range. Romney sires selected from a handful of chosen studs are brought in from outside to breed a first cross halfbred.
Then a poll merino sire put over these halfbreds brings them down to 21 microns and they are bred for a good carcass and breed production.
"Again, now we are doing a few quarterbred first cross animals, but most of them are now stabilised too to set them up as what they call a quarterbred as a stabilised flock and really working on having that wool around that 21 micron with a high level of productivity that you can kill the progeny pre-winter at good carcass weights."
Earlier this month the Stevensons sold 32 Dorset Downs and 28 South Dorset Down terminal sires at their ram sale followed by 132 poll merinos, quarterbreds and halfbreds.
The top price was $4100 for a quarterbred ram and the overall average was $1100.
Mr Stevenson said they had one more year of terminal ram sales next year as they still had the ram lambs from last year and then it would be the end of a legacy. The fine wool ram sales will continue.
To promote the ewe dispersal sale the family will hold a "ewe walk" in an open afternoon on the Sunday before the sale so prospective buyers can eye up their future purchases in the yards.
