Latest Happenings

Here is the latest news and updated from Twin Farm Genetics

Methane Testing

On March 2nd and 3rd we Methane tested 120 ram lambs from our TEFRom stud. Agresearch arrived with their methane testing trailer. The trailer can hold and individually test 12 rams at a time. Our rams, from an array of sires, were split into 10 groups of 12 and testing began. The 12 rams were in the trailer for an hour at a time. The photo collage shows (from left) the trailer, a ram in a testing chamber and Russell (front) letting a ram out of the chamber after Andrew from Agresearch (back) has measured the methane emitted by the ram. We look forward to seeing the results once all the analytics have been completed.

For a few years now we have been identifying TEFRoms with a shedding tail. The current advantage of this is reduced dagging. An important things we must watch though is that we aren't losing the wool from other key areas. The photo here shows two TEFRom ewes with shedding tails, in the paddock with their lambs. There is another TEFRom ewe without a shedding tail also in the picture. We have always focused on having a big clear patch, but this is an added bonus that we are selecting for while maintaining a quality fleece.

Follow Andrew as he goes around the hoggets during lambing. The steady rain had pushed the stream level right up and it was flowing back into our paddocks. But the hoggets had it under control taking all their little lambs to the shelter.

We are delighted to announce that we are the 2017 winners of the Abacus Bio New Zealand Maternal Worth award at the New Zealand Sheep Industry Awards fo Read more

Twin Farm Lambing

Tagging Hogget twins, Andrew is EID tagging and recording the lambs, along with a maternal and teat placement score for the hogget.

Yesterday we had Bennett Livestock on farm to belly crutch the lambs.

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Tailing at the Hill Block

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Tailing 2022

Here are a couple of photos for this year's tailing.

The lambs at home and at the hill block are looking great.

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A I Breeding Programme

This season we have used AI in our breeding programme across 95 ewes in our TEFRom and Suftex studs.

This is the eighth time we have used AI in our breeding programme and it is a great tool to enable us to use genetics which would otherwise be hard to use due to location or demand. Using high performing outside rams ensures breeding divers Click to view

Weighing Ewe Hogget Fleeces

On December 28 we got Darin Forde's shearing gang in to shear the TEFRom ewe hoggets, these had been weaned a week prior. This video shows the shearing of the ewe hoggets and the fleeces being weighed. It is an 'all-hands-on-deck' job to ensure the recording is accurate. The fleece weights become a component of the Maternal Worth value calculate Click to view