At Nithdale (18km Southeast of Gore) we are farming sheep, cattle and dairy on 1478ha + 157ha leased over the fence with this winter carrying over 18000 stock units. We have two performance recorded studs: Romneys and Suffolks. The Romneys were started in 1980 in an effort to breed easy care sheep with growth and good wool. Since the early 1990s we have been part of the Southern Romney Development Group and have been selecting for number of lambs born and low faecal egg counts being part of the AgResearch WormFEC programme. Romneys are the base to our commercial flock in a climate where hardiness, easy care and performance are essential to maximise returns. Our goal is to breed a low cost maternal sheep that can handle a tough environment and maximise output of quality meat and wool.

In an effort to further boost lamb growth rates and carcase characteristics we started up a Suffolk stud in 1996 and have been selecting those for growth, meat and survival. Our goal is to produce a black face terminal sire that maximises growth, meat and survival.

With both the Romneys and Suffolks since 2005 we have been breeding the MyoMax gene from the Texel breed into the sheep using the Pfizer Animal Genetics blood test. Since 2010 we have started CT scanning and dag scoring in both breeds. In 2010 we also began to commercially 50k SNP chip test our Romney sires.

Visit our web site at www.nithdale.com for more information on the history of the property and studs, our current breeding objectives and rams used.