Fifth generation farmer Roger Trewick and his wife Dianne have been breeding Poll Dorsets under their prefix Pepperton since 1994 and were early adopters of LAMBPLAN performance recording, concentrating on growth, muscling and moderate fat levels.
Always on the front foot with technology, the couple started artificially joining their entire ewe flock in 1999 to maximise genetic gain.
Adding White Suffolks in 2004, Pepperton produces around 200 rams each year — those retained for sale must have a Terminal Carcase Production Index of over 155, are DNA-tested for lamb eating quality, and are grazed on dryland lucerne with minimal grain feeding during dry times.
Data is collected by seven months of age on all rams, and they consistently test high for muscling and growth with moderate fat and lower birthweights. There is a high incidence of twinning in the stud ewes with 150 per cent weaning the norm.
The couple’s 283ha farm has been in the Trewick family since 1864 and runs 450 registered Poll Dorset and White Suffolk ewes with dual purpose wheat and grazing oats, and lupin or vetch crops undersown with dryland lucerne.
A separate 72ha block has irrigated pasture for the ewes and their April drop lambs.
The stud has a split joining with AI programs in November and March for an April and August lambing to spread the workload more evenly across the year.
“We are getting very good results with our AI because we have our ewes in a good body condition score of at least 3 to 4 prior to lambing — the ewe lambs must be over 50kg liveweight at joining at 10 months of age,” Mr Trewick said.
“Recently we naturally joined ram lambs to 100 ewe lambs in containment pens with a 91 per cent conception rate.”
The maiden ewes are classed by Mr Trewick on LAMBPLAN figures and constitution, with weights and body condition scores taken pre-joining.
Mrs Trewick carefully matches each ewe to an individual sire in complementary matings.
Continued selection for positive fat and eye muscle depth at Pepperton resulted in the highest muscled Poll Dorset ram in Australia, Pepperton P180339, for the 2018 drop with a ASBV of +6.5mm for eye muscle depth.
Mr Trewick classes the young rams on conformation and is pedantic about feet and leg structure.
“Rams of both breeds in our flock have similar attributes and could be joined to Merino ewes without much difference. We keep a close eye on birthweight and shear force,” he said.
Using genomics to take the guesswork out of breeding, DNA tests are carried out for parentage, lamb eating quality, lean meat yield and intramuscular fat.
“When the industry was moving towards leaner carcases, we did not go down that track as we had a lot of Merino clients and they don’t require a ram negative for fat,” Mrs Trewick said.
“We concentrated mainly on muscle, red meat yield and moderate fat so many of the young rams have positive fat in both breeds. This is coupled with a moderate birthweight.
“We use AI sires that trait leaders for shear force as the consumer is demanding tenderness in their lamb. We are achieving good ASBVs in our rams for IMF, shear force and dressing percentage.”
Pepperton is a member of Meat Elite Australia, an Australia-wide group of progressive Poll Dorset breeders with the aim to deliver more than 20 per cent faster genetic improvement then the average for terminal sire groups.
Pepperton will offer 50 Poll Dorset and 50 White Suffolk top indexing 2022 drop rams on-property at Elmore on October 18 at 1pm, interfaced with AuctionsPlus.
