Stud History
Stockman Stud's inception was based on extensive research undertaken in both Australian and international textile mills, to ascertain the qualities and performance the mills require from wool. Working back from there Stockman sourced stock which possessed these qualities both objectively and subjectively.
In 1984 Mr Gerard McShane founded Stockman Stud with the purchase of stock from 'Oriental Park', a Collinsville daughter stud. Through Stockman's' early years, rams were sourced from a number of studs including 'Nyowee' and 'Greenfields', to expand the number of Poll Merino ewes.
In 1989 Stockman accelerated its breeding program with the purchase of Glenroy 847 a Collinsville Poll ram, for a world record price of $280,000 (no this is not a misprint). Stockman has also introduced rams from 'Morley' and 'Toland' studs to improve the depth of their Poll Merino flock.
The inaugural on-property sale was held in November 1995 and proved to be a great success, Stockman continues to sell 80-85 rams each year to Tasmanian and Mainland buyers.
Gerard McShane
Principal
Stockman Stud
Selection Criteria
Georgina Gray holding Tasmania's 1998 Grand Champion Wool Ram. Photo Courtesy of Wayne Jenkins
Mr McShane went in search of bloodlines with greater conversion capabilities of feed to wool, which at the same time retained the virtues of early maturing and robust constitution.
Therefore, Stockman places strict emphasis on constitution, soft handling wool, crimp definition and staple length. All sires are midside sampled for micron, coefficient variation, standard deviation and for fibres greater than 30 micron (comfort factor).
Stockman is moving away from the 'tickle and feel' method of classing and is committed to testing all their rams and selecting on analysed results with the assistance of visual assessment.
A New Era
As you may be aware, Stockman Stud has stepped away from the show circuit, after 10 years of success, to redirect our skills and resources into further improving our genetic base through extensive and rigorous on-property sire evaluation trails.
These trials involve ten sires being mated to 100 randomly selected commercial ewes each. These ewes are lambed down individually and then, once the lambs are tagged, they are all run together. From this point on all these lambs are run together until they are shorn at 16 months of age. Prior to shearing each of these progeny is individually classed by our Stud Classer in full wool and ranked on 16 different traits. They are then allocated to a Top, Flock, or Cull group. All this data is analysed and the different sires can be compared.
At shearing all the fleeces are tested for Micron, Greasy Fleece Weight, and Coefficient of Variation using the Laserscan machine and this data is used to compare the progeny of the different sires. So by the end of the process we have compared the genetic value of all the sires through subjective and objective means.
Currently we have fully assessed the first year of progeny from the sire trial, which saw 00-0378 top the results. We have subjectively classed the second year sire trial progeny and the third year progeny have been marked and tagged.
This form of thorough testing ensures that only the sires with the greatest genetic influence are used within our stud and will ensure that Stockman Stud will increase genetic gains at the fastest possible rate, further increasing profitability for us and our clients.
A New Level of Confidence
Stockman Stud has always been keen to continually improve our selection process and breeding program. We have always used mid-side sampling as a major tool in our selection process, a number of years ago we included fleece weight data as an addition to this and now we have gone one step further by actually testing our rams genetic potential to ensure that we are selecting the best possible sires.
For the past four years we have been testing out top young rams against other high ranking rams throughout Australia. The most effective and accurate way of doing this is to compare the progeny of these rams. Our progeny test program involves ewes randomly being assigned to one of 10 rams for mating. These ewes are then identified against the relative sire and run together until lambing. Lambing is the only time that these sheep are not run together. Once lambing has finished the lambs are tagged and recorded to their respective sire and then the mobs are run back together. From this point on the lambs are all run together until hogget shearing. This ensures that environment has little effect on any results.
Tim Bryant employee for over 27 years finishing off front loading pens that allow one workmen to pen up and count out for 12 shearers.
(We overlook the fact that he barracks for Essendon)
In October, when the progeny are 14 months of age, they are visually classed for 16 different visual traits and allocated a top, flock, or cull grouping. At shearing all the fleeces are tested for micron, greasy fleece weight and coefficient of variation using the Laserscan machine. These results are then combined with the visual classing results in assessing the performance of the different sires.
We have two years completed results and we have visually classed the third year’s progeny. Our forth year’s progeny have recently been tagged as lambs. The two standout rams over the completed trials have been 00-0378 and OP 14. OP 14 has been a long-time sire of the stud and 00-0378 has been used extensively on the basis of these trial results.
We believe that the use of this trial program gives us the confidence and security to progress the genetic base of Stockman Stud to the next level. By combining visual (subjective) and measured (objective) testing we have identified the most productive and structurally sound sires to ensure that Stockman Stud will capitalise on genetic gains at the fastest possible rate, further increasing profitability for us and our clients.