Mt Cass Wiltshires have inherent internal parasite tolerance and come into their own in the farms low-input organic system. Mt Cass Wiltshires don’t need to be shorn, crutched or dipped for fly strike. This results in significant savings on shearing, labor and agrichemical costs.
While they do not produce wool, Mt Cass Wiltshires are good meat producers and we wean 135-145% off the hill country. About 40% of the Mt Cass lamb crop is sold prime pre Christmas at a 16.5kg to 17.5kg carcass weight.
Mt Cass Wiltshires have inherent internal parasite tolerance and come into their own in the farms low-input organic system. Mt Cass Wiltshires don’t need to be shorn, crutched or dipped for fly strike. This results in significant savings on shearing, labor and agrichemical costs.
Mt Cass Wiltshires have been developed in our Organic farming system. This means they must stand up to minimal inputs of drench and animal health products. Along with this their shedding fleece means they don’t need to be crutched or shorn allowing us to keep labor costs to a minimum.
Our ewes and hoggets are lambed extensively without intervention on our North Canterbury hill country station. This low interference lambing system has enabled us to select for lambing ease, lamb vigor and ultimately lamb and ewe survival. Mt Cass Wiltshires wean 135-145% off the hill country.
Our ewes are farmed organically on our North Canterbury hill country property. Testing our genetics in an organic system since 2009 has meant that only the animals with the natural tolerance for these conditions have performed and survived in our system. This gives us confidence in the product we are presenting.
We have a number of ewes and rams which carry the ‘Myomax’ Gene. Carriers of this gene have shown a genetic weight gain advantage with carriers averaging 1.1kg heavier at weaning, and 1-2kg heavier at 12 months of age (Ewe – Ram Hoggets Respectively).
Our aim is to produce a sheep with a low labor requirement, producing sheep which don’t need to be crutched, shorn or dipped and have very minimal drenching requirement. We aim to have sound feet and we test our genetics in our 8000 ewe Organic flock.
We have been breeding and selecting Wiltshires at Mt Cass since 2009. We have selected our ewes and rams to have full shedding fleeces, minimal drenching requirement and have a strict cull policy for any animal with poor feet.
Mt Cass and its organic system is an ideal testing ground for genetics.
Our aim is to develop a sheep that:
(Date TBC)
Mt Cass Wiltshires Elite Ram Sale (Date TBC)
Address: 47 Symonds Road Waipara
(Date TBC)
Mt Cass Wiltshires Commercial Ewe sale (Date TBC)
Address: 47 Symonds Road, Waipara
In 2021 Mt Cass Wiltshires began progeny testing our rams for facial eczema tolerance. We see this a step in the right direction to ensuring we are producing a Ram that will tolerate the conditions from the top of the north to the bottom of the south. As this project continues, we will be sharing our results.
We have anecdotal evidence of the way our stock perform in an organic system as to their tolerance to internal parasites. Going forward we are committed to measuring wormFEC and quantifying our level of resilience.
We are using AI to introduce genetics from Exlana stud in the United Kingdom. We see their traits for fecundity and internal parasite resistance as a valuable synergy for our existing genetic offering. Exlana are recognized worldwide for their low input sheep genetics.
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