A LIFELONG fascination for sheep and breeding has led passionate sheep breeder Neil Garnett to introduce the Lamb Master, a culmination of a 25-year long vision.
Neil learned the real-life lessons of sheep breeding throughout his childhood, from sitting on his dad’s knee as a toddler looking at sheep, to hanging around the stockyards peering through the rails, listening to the adult conversations and later as a young man through keen observation and a hands-on approach classing hundreds of thousands of sheep.
Neil ran the successful Glenroy stud, Gnowangerup and later his name became synonymous with the famed Collinsville stud, Burra, South Australia, which he owned and ran, during which time the stud set world records for ram prices in keenly-contested sales.
During his tenure at Glenroy and Collinsville and in co-operation with universities and industry experts, Neil guided the introduction of game changing technology including the use of embryo transfer, now commonplace in the industry.
In 1990 Neil received the prestigious Advance Australia Award by the federal government for his contribution to the sheep breeding industry in Australia.
During his Glenroy and Collinsville years, Neil had the opportunity to visit and study sheep in all major sheep growing regions around the world, and in the process met with the major breeders, owners and innovators in the global sheep industry.
This led to him consulting for businesses both in Australia and overseas, including USA, South America and the Middle East.
After the collapse of the Wool Corporation in 1991 which had a devastating impact on the Collinsville stud, Neil was invited by the late Peter Cook and his wife Pam from South Australia to South Africa to evaluate the possibility of establishing a facility to collect sheep and goat embryos for importation into Australia.
After regular visits to leading South African sheep and goat studs this opportunity was established and a group of skilled people were gathered together in what became the South African and Australian Breeders Company (SABCO).
One of those people, Adrian Veitch, Kaya Dorper, Narrogin, was engaged to collect 10,000 embryos for importation into Australia which is believed to be the largest embryo program ever carried out.
During this time it was Neil’s role to select the studs that would contribute the male and female sheep and goats for the innovative project, with sheep breeds selected including Dorper, Merino, Damara and Prime SAMM.
An embryo collection facility was established in Colesburg, South Africa and the embryos later all arrived in Australia.
During this time, Neil recognised an opportunity to breed a sheep using predominantly South African genetics which would be ideally suited for the Australian prime lamb sheep market.
In the painstaking process of achieving his breed aims, Neil worked with many keen and enthusiastic breeders including the late Digby Lee-Steere.
Neil’s focus was to produce a breed of sheep that was highly fertile, fast growing, hardy and self-reliant with a stay-at-home (not destructive on fences) and easy to contain temperament.
There was also a need for excellent feet and the capacity to walk long distances for water while requiring minimal general management and supervision during lambing.
These traits were the guiding requirements over the past 23 year period it has taken to create the breed benefits now ready to offer to the market in the form of the Lamb Master.
The Lamb Master sheep are the end result of this extraordinary and long-term process, which has taken much time and focus.
In recent years, the latest stages in the development of this breed have been carried out on properties in the Margaret River region and mainly on the Garnett and Brent Watson family properties, along with Charlotte and Scott Crabb on their property at Wilyabrup.
The Lamb Master sheep is white in colour, polled, quiet in nature, easy to contain, fast growing, large framed and with a strong constitution.
It is also highly fertile, very early maturing with a strong mothering instinct.
Most importantly, the Lamb Master sheep is suited to both wet and dry regions of Australia, it fully sheds its winter coat and does not require shearing, crutching, mulesing or external parasite control because it is lice resistant.
In 2017 the foundation breeding blue tag ewes (two year old) weaned more than 150 per cent lambs and the black tag ewes (one year old) weaned 98pc and 101pc lambs.
Apart from three special adult sires, all of the foundation breeding ewes were mated to seven month old ram lambs in 2015 and 2016.
Now, towards September and October 2017, about 150 black and white tag rams (18mo and 7/8mo rams) are available to ram buyers to purchase by private treaty at the Margaret River property only.
They will be classed by Neil into three commercial price lines of $800, $1000 and $1200 ($880, $1100 and $1320 inc GST).
Ten specially selected rams are also to be offered, priced individually from between $2000 and $5000 ($2200-$5500 inc GST) for stud ram buyers.
All sale rams are only grassfed so as to protect their fertility and longevity.
This also helps the breeder, as the most productive animal has the constitution to be the best.
Further to this, Neil believes it is also very important to ram buyers that rams and their data are not distorted by the feeding of high protein diets that are not the environment the progeny will be raised in.
p For more information about Lamb Master sheep, contact Neil Garnett 0418 855 406 or via email neil@lambmaster.com.au
