Message to 2021 Ewe Buyers
A message to all sheep breeders who registered to buy Kikitangeo ewes
Not all who registered purchased ewes, but as you expressed an interest, I will share with you this message.
I was quite upset the sale was so chaotic with number of ewes failing to turn up on the day despite the best efforts of Kiki workers and PGG Wrightson agents. I failed to meet many if you, for which I apologize.
After the sale nearly all the ewes returned to the farm, the last unloaded at 9.30pm and were put in a paddock believed to be secure. The bad news is that the next morning we found two stray rams with them, but we did not record their numbers. The good news is that any early born lambs will have the same worm resistance as the rest of the flock, that goes for all other traits of the Kiki studs like sound feet and breed quality.
The sale was a huge undertaking for all concerned. For example, the sorting out of the ewes, after the sale, for transportation took three Wrightson staff plus Greg and Teagan two whole days, the second day to sort out the South Island sheep took until dark. The agents were brilliant and I think only one sheep ended up on the wrong property. We were all very thankful that the lambs weren’t sold.
The sheep went all over the country mainly to Romney farmers and breeders, with just a few going to other breeds like Coopworth and Texel. Some new Romney breeders bought ewes intending to carry on with my breeding programme, mating the ewes with Kiki sires. We have supplied top ram lambs to breeders that did not have Kiki sires. We also supplied three sires to other breeders as they would have been wasted if left at home. My top sire D316-16 went to Canterbury and was used by David Giddings – who bought 70 ewes - and Eric Laurenson who has bought Kiki sires over a number of years. All the ewes not sold at the sale, together with some missing at the sale were sold to two farmers. Some were sold to the Gibbs Foundation principal, Alan Gibbs, who bought Neil Barr's property on the shores of the Kaipara Harbour. Neil Barr, the founder of the Farm Forestry organisation, whose historic property now features huge artworks imported from other countries. The Kiki ewes were mated with a top Kiki sire purchased the previous year.
Bryan Chittock, a substantial King Country farmer bought 100 ewes after the sale. Two top Kiki ram lambs were supplied to mate with these ewes. Bryan has a top manager, a fine lady, whom I feel confident is keen and competent to carry on with the programme that delivered success. I am planning to list on the Kikitangeo website those ram breeders who have bought Kiki ewes plus those that have Kiki rams, so ram buyers who seek to breed for worm resistance are better informed. However, permission would have to be granted.
A number of ram breeders in the official Worm FEC programme bought Kiki ewes to add diversity to their bloodlines and perhaps speed up the rate of progress. I would strongly recommend that ram breeders wishing to breed for the resistance trait that you join the Worm FEC programme. The Worm FEC programme was installed by Government scientists in 1990 with protocols to be followed, with the aim to breed worm resistant sheep. About 130 ram breeders joined, including myself, but most left in a few years when they realised there was hard work, considerable costs and no rewards. I believe with Worm FEC membership, the advantages far outweigh the costs. The advantages are as follows:
The Worm FEC group supplies basic rules to be followed which requires one dung sample from each ram lamb at the peak of Worm challenges – late January to late March. The Techion Company Mosgiel that does all FEC, provides all materials for testing and provides your results to SIL processing, then back to your bureau with the results. They require only one sampling, preferably 25 sons of each sire. Over the 34 years of sampling, I took 2 samples and since 2007 took a second sample a month later with no drenching: in some years a third sample was taken another month later. These samples were taken the third week of January, February and March. This resulted in extra cost, but gave me valuable information as to the tracking of worm levels. The Techion personnel are very helpful and knowledgeable.
Over the 34 years of taking samples, I have not found it a difficult task. Around 25,000 samples were taken over this period, with about 25 per hour.
You will be analysing your Kiki bred lambs, be they full or half breds. I hope you did not drench them at docking, as this will impede the development of the immune system. Please, please do not drench them at weaning as this will mean a pause in immune development. Worm challenges are not great until after mid-January. As farmers we have over drenched for decades. That has been a major cause of drench resistance. In faecal egg counting, I would often average 3,500 to 4,000 with a range from the low 100’s to 20,000 to 30,000, with few lambs showing effects. The counts are high because the BP worm where females shed 10,000 per day. In most areas of New Zealand where the BP worm is not dominant, I believe both half and full blooded Kiki lambs will require no drenching. Many breeders have found this to be so.
The sale of Kiki 2020 born lambs. Originally this sale was planned for mid-November this year, but because the lambs did poorly over the winter the sale will now be on 19 January 2022 at 11.30am where approximately 70 rams will be offered together with 250 to 300 2th ewes. All by Kikitangeo sires. More details in a newsletter that will appear on the Kikitangeo website some time in November. All the sale sheep with their SIL figures will also be on the website in December.
The health issue with the lambs over autumn/winter was that all the lambs were scouring continually due to some unknown “bugs”, there were a number of losses. Dung samples analysed revealed nothing. The lambs lost weight and when weighed on 1 August, had only gained 11kgs from weaning, mid-December. The average weight of ram lambs on the winter weighing was only 38kg. The ewe lambs fared better. Generally ewe lambs are less susceptible to worms and diseases. This year there were no crops to vary their diet.
The good news is that all lambs have recovered very well. At this stage the rams are far better than normal in condition and I am delighted with the overall quality of the whole mob. The DPF figure – which is for worm resistance – will be well over 700, with few under 600, all by Kiki sires.
Over the past 12 months, I have received one request for semen from Kiki G197-14 from a scientist in Nepal wishing to do research. This didn’t happen because of transport difficulties due to Covid. Another request from a farmer in Austria who was working with a scientist, also wishing to conduct trials. Unfortunately, this may not happen due to EU rules. Apparently unlike New Zealand the BP worm is rampant all over Europe, Scotland and Canada.
Finally, I have supplied several articles to the Countrywide special sheep issue, relating to worm problems and the immune system which is the key to resistance to disease and some parasites.
Gordon Levet
November 2021
A message to all sheep breeders who registered to buy Kikitangeo ewes
Not all who registered purchased ewes, but as you expressed an interest, I will share with you this message.
I was quite upset the sale was so chaotic with number of ewes failing to turn up on the day despite the best efforts of Kiki workers and PGG Wrightson agents. I failed to meet many if you, for which I apologize.
After the sale nearly all the ewes returned to the farm, the last unloaded at 9.30pm and were put in a paddock believed to be secure. The bad news is that the next morning we found two stray rams with them, but we did not record their numbers. The good news is that any early born lambs will have the same worm resistance as the rest of the flock, that goes for all other traits of the Kiki studs like sound feet and breed quality.
The sale was a huge undertaking for all concerned. For example, the sorting out of the ewes, after the sale, for transportation took three Wrightson staff plus Greg and Teagan two whole days, the second day to sort out the South Island sheep took until dark. The agents were brilliant and I think only one sheep ended up on the wrong property. We were all very thankful that the lambs weren’t sold.
The sheep went all over the country mainly to Romney farmers and breeders, with just a few going to other breeds like Coopworth and Texel. Some new Romney breeders bought ewes intending to carry on with my breeding programme, mating the ewes with Kiki sires. We have supplied top ram lambs to breeders that did not have Kiki sires. We also supplied three sires to other breeders as they would have been wasted if left at home. My top sire D316-16 went to Canterbury and was used by David Giddings – who bought 70 ewes - and Eric Laurenson who has bought Kiki sires over a number of years. All the ewes not sold at the sale, together with some missing at the sale were sold to two farmers. Some were sold to the Gibbs Foundation principal, Alan Gibbs, who bought Neil Barr's property on the shores of the Kaipara Harbour. Neil Barr, the founder of the Farm Forestry organisation, whose historic property now features huge artworks imported from other countries. The Kiki ewes were mated with a top Kiki sire purchased the previous year.
Bryan Chittock, a substantial King Country farmer bought 100 ewes after the sale. Two top Kiki ram lambs were supplied to mate with these ewes. Bryan has a top manager, a fine lady, whom I feel confident is keen and competent to carry on with the programme that delivered success. I am planning to list on the Kikitangeo website those ram breeders who have bought Kiki ewes plus those that have Kiki rams, so ram buyers who seek to breed for worm resistance are better informed. However, permission would have to be granted.
A number of ram breeders in the official Worm FEC programme bought Kiki ewes to add diversity to their bloodlines and perhaps speed up the rate of progress. I would strongly recommend that ram breeders wishing to breed for the resistance trait that you join the Worm FEC programme. The Worm FEC programme was installed by Government scientists in 1990 with protocols to be followed, with the aim to breed worm resistant sheep. About 130 ram breeders joined, including myself, but most left in a few years when they realised there was hard work, considerable costs and no rewards. I believe with Worm FEC membership, the advantages far outweigh the costs. The advantages are as follows:
- It will give you entry into the SIL programme for worm resistance (WR) which gives a DPF figure which will give a measure for WR for each animal. This is a forecast figure taking into account not only the individual FEC but also factors in the sires and the sire of the dams and related siblings contributions. This DPF figure is based on a normal figure of 0.00 with a plus meaning resistance and a minus figure indicating susceptibility. This DPF also has a ranking for all sampled animals. You will also be able to monitor progress over a 3 or 5 year period. In my case I managed to have the top ram lamb in 2011 with a DPF of 368. Slow progress in 24 years! In 2019, the top was 1079, with 18 lambs over the 1000 threshold. Good progress by any measure.
- Ram buyers keen on breeding for this trait will want to see the figures relating to WR. I believe this interest will grow rapidly with the rapid increase of drench resistance. One worm FEC breeder has had his biggest order ever (20) for rams, solely for the WR trait.
- It will enable your sires to be listed on the SIL-ACE Trait Leader: Worm FEC, which ranks the top WR sires in the country.
The Worm FEC group supplies basic rules to be followed which requires one dung sample from each ram lamb at the peak of Worm challenges – late January to late March. The Techion Company Mosgiel that does all FEC, provides all materials for testing and provides your results to SIL processing, then back to your bureau with the results. They require only one sampling, preferably 25 sons of each sire. Over the 34 years of sampling, I took 2 samples and since 2007 took a second sample a month later with no drenching: in some years a third sample was taken another month later. These samples were taken the third week of January, February and March. This resulted in extra cost, but gave me valuable information as to the tracking of worm levels. The Techion personnel are very helpful and knowledgeable.
Over the 34 years of taking samples, I have not found it a difficult task. Around 25,000 samples were taken over this period, with about 25 per hour.
You will be analysing your Kiki bred lambs, be they full or half breds. I hope you did not drench them at docking, as this will impede the development of the immune system. Please, please do not drench them at weaning as this will mean a pause in immune development. Worm challenges are not great until after mid-January. As farmers we have over drenched for decades. That has been a major cause of drench resistance. In faecal egg counting, I would often average 3,500 to 4,000 with a range from the low 100’s to 20,000 to 30,000, with few lambs showing effects. The counts are high because the BP worm where females shed 10,000 per day. In most areas of New Zealand where the BP worm is not dominant, I believe both half and full blooded Kiki lambs will require no drenching. Many breeders have found this to be so.
The sale of Kiki 2020 born lambs. Originally this sale was planned for mid-November this year, but because the lambs did poorly over the winter the sale will now be on 19 January 2022 at 11.30am where approximately 70 rams will be offered together with 250 to 300 2th ewes. All by Kikitangeo sires. More details in a newsletter that will appear on the Kikitangeo website some time in November. All the sale sheep with their SIL figures will also be on the website in December.
The health issue with the lambs over autumn/winter was that all the lambs were scouring continually due to some unknown “bugs”, there were a number of losses. Dung samples analysed revealed nothing. The lambs lost weight and when weighed on 1 August, had only gained 11kgs from weaning, mid-December. The average weight of ram lambs on the winter weighing was only 38kg. The ewe lambs fared better. Generally ewe lambs are less susceptible to worms and diseases. This year there were no crops to vary their diet.
The good news is that all lambs have recovered very well. At this stage the rams are far better than normal in condition and I am delighted with the overall quality of the whole mob. The DPF figure – which is for worm resistance – will be well over 700, with few under 600, all by Kiki sires.
Over the past 12 months, I have received one request for semen from Kiki G197-14 from a scientist in Nepal wishing to do research. This didn’t happen because of transport difficulties due to Covid. Another request from a farmer in Austria who was working with a scientist, also wishing to conduct trials. Unfortunately, this may not happen due to EU rules. Apparently unlike New Zealand the BP worm is rampant all over Europe, Scotland and Canada.
Finally, I have supplied several articles to the Countrywide special sheep issue, relating to worm problems and the immune system which is the key to resistance to disease and some parasites.
Gordon Levet
November 2021