Boost fertility, growth with Camlea Charollais rams

Camlea genetics improving production and profitability, and their clients are reporting strong results on farm and in a range of markets.

Camlea stud principal Kevin Feakins had been using Charollais rams since the 1970s in the UK, but had to start from scratch when he and his wife Gina moved to Australia.

They settled on a property at Glencoe, the New England region of NSW, and at first, Mr Feakins used Poll Dorset rams as Charollais sires weren't available in Austrlaia, but lambing proved difficult with many complications and losses.

Determined to introduce Charollais sires, the Feakins' contacted an old friend and farm vet in the UK, Nick Hart, who had met South Australian vet Ian McDougall, who had imported embryos into Australia.

"He really deserves all the credit for introducing the breed to Australia," Mr Feakins said.

"I tracked him down and sure enough, he had embryos in storage.

"He had a small flock of pure sheep, which he sent to our farm, in order to take fresh embryos from them to sell to us.

"He told me he had done very little with the breed as he had found it hard to impress, on the Australian lamb producers the benefit of changing to a different terminal sire."

Embryos from Ian's small flock were implanted in the Camlea crossbred ewes, and after a few months Mr McDougalls ewes were shifted to Victoria where he helped establish another sizeable flock of purebred Charollais.

"We grew our flock with more embryo work, followed by continuous natural breeding, and local farmers saw our fat lambs and wanted to buy rams," Mr Feakins said.

A few years later, the stud was offering 80 to 100 rams, and rams and ewes have now been sold to producers in most states of Australia, as well as New Zealand.

"From a single import of embryos, the Charollais breed is now well established in Australia, with numerous small flocks," Mr Feakins said.

The Charollais breed is known for its high fertility and longevity in both rams and ewes, with rams reaching maturity from seven months of age and working for six or seven seasons, and ewes achieving exceptional lambing percentages.

"We have recently scanned our ewes with a percentage in excess of 180 per cent and regularly achieve this and higher," Mr Feakins said.

It's also an easy care breed, with their structure making lambing easy, and once they're on the ground, they're growing quickly.

In good seasons, Mr Feakins has been able to turn off lambs at 40 kilograms in just eight weeks.

"Charollais-cross lambs have extremely fast growth rates and you can be caught out with lambs being too heavy at marking time if you adopt the same time period that you use with other breeds.

"The Charollais breed carries the double-muscled gene which is not present in many of the other breeds used for fat lamb production, and it's visually apparent in the lambs.

"That gene accounts for not only the quicker growth rates as well as the high dressing percentage - we've had lambs dress at 56pc."

After more than a decade in the New England, the stud had grown to 500 ewes, but drought forced a shift in production, and the couple decided to downsize, moving to Cudgee, Victoria, after purchasing a former dairy farm.

"We didn't want to lose the core Charollais flock or any of the ponies, because they couldn't be replaced," Mr Feakins said.

"In the 18 months we have been here, we have erected 20km of sheep fence, built a lambing shed, built stables, converted the dairy to a shearing shed, built sheep and cattle yards, replaced several shed roofs, and hung 200 gates."

They've also held two on-farm ram sales, and they've had to build a new client base since the shift from NSW.

Last October they had a complete clearance of their 100 rams on offer, and another 60 have sold privately since the sale, along with another 30 to 40 rams and ewe lambs which have been sent north to existing clients near Glen Innes.

Clients are reporting good results, particularly with recent markets, where young crossbred lambs are making up to $250 a head.

"Australian sheep farmers are fast realising that the days of reliance on wool alone, may not be sustainable and that quality prime lambs may be a more lucrative market to pursue," Mr Feakins said.

Camlea now runs about 650 stud ewes, including 250 ewe lambs joined this year, as well as crossbred ewes.

On offer in this year's sale will be about 100 rams.

"We are unable to access new genetic material from the UK at the moment, so we'll select fresh unrelated ram lambs that we consider carry the best attributes of the Charollais breed," Mr Feakins said.