Corriedale breeders Peter and Claire Blackwood reap results of profit push

FOCUSING on performance traits is proving profitable for Corriedale breeders Peter and Claire Blackwood.

Great time: Peter Blackwood of Blackwood Performance Corriedales at Evandale has enjoyed good prices for his wool and a record price for the breed at an interstate sale. Picture: Chris Kidd

FOCUSING on performance traits is proving profitable for Corriedale breeders Peter and Claire Blackwood.

The couple recently sold one of the rams from their Blackwood Performance Corriedales stud for $6500 at the Sheepvention ram sale, the highest price achieved for a Corriedale ram at Sheepvention for 39 years.

For the past five years, the Blackwoods have been taking rams to be sold at Sheepvention at Hamilton in Victoria.

Mr Blackwood said it was a good way to promote their stud and for potential clients to see their sheep first hand.

“It’s in the western districts, that’s an area where Corriedales have always been,” he said.

“We do sell quite a few rams here too, but going over there, is a good way for other producers to see our sheep and even if they don’t buy one there they might come down here later and buy one.”

The top-priced ram was bought by Terry Phillips and Mark Readers from Victoria.

Topping off the good ram sale, the Blackwoods also recently sold some of their wool and achieved fantastic prices.

Their top 11-bale lot of 23.6-micron wool made 1121 cents a kilogram, about $2145 a bale.

The couple have about 200 registered ewes in the stud on their 53ha property Harland Rise at White Hills. They also lease another 405ha at Cressy.

Performance traits have been a big focus for the stud.

“The Corriedales were really losing ground to all the composites and maternal breeds so we needed to make some changes,” Mr Blackwood said.

“We need to be improving production by about 2 per cent a year to keep up. Lambing percentage is one of the main profit drivers in a lamb enterprise so that’s something we’ve looked at. ”

Other key areas include early growth and carcass traits.

As a dual-purpose breed Mr Blackwood said quality wool was also a Corriedale priority.

Their aim is to maintain all usual Corriedale wool traits and over time will focus on reducing the micron slightly.

“We don’t want to lose any of the carcass traits or the mothering ability by chasing micron down, but we should be able to get it a little bit finer over time,” he said

To ensure the breed is keeping pace, they have joined a group of seven Corriedale producers from across the country to form the Australian Performance Corriedale Group, which Mr Blackwood chairs.

The group has established a young sires program and a three-year eating-quality trial.

Mr Blackwood said demand for Corriedale rams was coming from maternal flocks, but also from breeders of Merinos and composite sheep.

“This is what we saw 10 years ago, there is a place for Corriedales as a dual-purpose breed. When you have an animal that can produce prime lambs and good wool, it is a very low-risk combination.”

Lambing has started in the Blackwoods’ stud-ewe flock which scanned at 156 per cent.

Mr Blackwood said they planned to join their ewe lambs next year for an extra age group to work with.

“We’ll increase our numbers but only as the quality improves. We are focusing on performance, but we also use shows and traditional visual assessments.”