And for the partners in the venture it was almost more exciting than getting grandchildren.
Beltex embryos imported from England were transferred to four-year-old Perendale ewes on Blair Gallagher’s Mid Canterbury foothills Rangiatea farm in March.
The first of the lambs was born last week and first impressions were extremely encouraging.
“The lambs are really healthy and robust, easy lambing and at just four days old the muscling is already showing out,” Gallagher said.
“It’s almost more exciting than getting grandchildren,” Canterbury farm adviser John Tavendale said.
“It’s been a long time coming and to see these lambs on the ground in NZ is just so exciting for the whole sheep industry.”
Following 10 years of research and planning Beltex NZ partner and longtime Otago sheep genetics scientist Jock Allison finally got the breakthrough he was looking for late last year.
Beltex NZ was established at the start of this year by Allison, Perendale stud breeder Gallagher, Tavendale and their families.
As the number of maternal ewes dropped in NZ it was increasingly important terminal sires maximised meat production, Gallagher said.
The Beltex was clearly weaning much heavier lambs than any other breed in Britain.
“And the discerning United Kingdom meat market was consistently realising a 15-20% premium in the market for Belgian Texel (Beltex) cross lambs.”
The carcase quality had a lot to offer the NZ export industry and the passionate sheep industry entrepreneurs were keen to bring that benefit to NZ farmers and get NZ lamb kicking forward.
The muscling in the sheep was impressive and the high-yielding lamb carcase had the Beltex continuing to grow in popularity as a terminal sire in the UK.
The Beltex had the ability to increase the loin eye area in lamb by up to 50%.
It had been 10 years since Tavendale was in touch with Allison to let him know he had a farmer, Gallagher, interested in importing the Beltex breed.
At the time it wasn’t possible to source animals from the UK or Europe and the quarantine periods required, even if it was possible, were a minimum three years.
To have an importation for less than $3 million was unlikely and the trio lost interest.
But with the new opportunity in 2015 it was all go and the first of the UK Beltex embryos were collected in November and December 2016.
And Beltex NZ was now lambing its first purebred Beltex lambs marking the start of an exciting new sheep breed in NZ, Gallagher said.
Up to 60 lambs were expected this season.
“We are on target for that and with just a dozen lambs so far we are about equal male and female so we are pretty happy.”
Given the initial $600,000 investment involved the ewes and lambs were receiving some extra special care.
“We are lambing them indoors, purely because of the investment. We are trying to eliminate all risk,” Gallagher said.
Once they were a couple of days old and tagged, the ewes and lambs went out to pasture.
In a pro-active approach to easy care all lambs were weighed and recorded at birth along with any relevant birthing data.
“It’s pretty critical we know everything about these lambs as we select genetics going forward.”
The purebreds born now would have their first public viewing at the Canterbury A&P show in November with the inaugural onfarm sale planned for next autumn.
Confidence and enthusiasm in the new breed was such that before the first lambs had dropped Gallagher and Tavendale were in the UK last month selecting stock for their next embryo import.
Stock were this time being used from five different flocks across England and southern Scotland.
The ewes had gone into isolation now for blood testing with flushing scheduled for October in time for Beltex NZ’s August 2018 lambing.
“The rams we have selected this time are not related to any ewes so we really have broadened our genetic base,” Gallagher said.
The partners expected investment in their “second crack” would be similar to the $600,000 initially invested.
“We clearly wouldn’t be doing it if we were not adding value to the sheep meat industry in NZ,” Tavendale said.
In addition to the purebred embryos Gallagher had 80 Beltex-Perendale, Suffolk and Poll Dorset-cross lambs due to start arriving on August 20.
The 1100 hectare Rangiatea sheep operation managed by Gallagher and his son Hamish, ran 4800 ewes, including 800 SIL recorded stud Perendales and 100 Cheviot ewes with 1600 ewe hoggets and 400 ram hoggets carried over the winter.
Up to 450 beef cattle made up the overall farming operation with all stock fattened on farm.
Gallagher has a self-confessed love for sheep farming.
“I have always been passionate about breeding and improving bloodlines so, as you can imagine, for me this venture is pretty damn exciting.”
