Wairere extends field team to cover growth

01-11-2005 | Not Specified

Sheep genetics provider Wairere has added two more experienced staff to its field team.

Andrew Puddy joined the Wairere team early last month after 14 years managing Te Whanga, east of Masterton, where he was also responsible for the property’s renowned Angus stud.

Puddy will represent the company in eastern North Island regions and also oversee management of thecomposite flock on Wairere, home base for the sheep enterprise north of Masterton.

Joining the team in the lower South Island is Jack Meehan who will operate from the Wairere South franchise flock owned by Trevor Peters at Otautau, Southland.

Meehan has been managing properties in Southland for the past 20 years.

Wairere’s marketing managerPierre Syben says the two recent appointments will enhance the service provided to clients and new customers.

“There’s a lot of overlapping skills in the team now. There are a lot of breeders doing good things out there, but service is one of our strong points of difference I believe,” Syben says.

Puddy says he’s looking forward to the role, especially the mix of contact with clients and practical management of the composite flock on Wairere.

Wairere principal Derek Daniell was among the first to see the opportunities having a full-time marketing manager on his team could offer and appointed Syben two-and-a-half years ago.

Over that period, Wairere has developed into the largest provider of maternal breed rams in the country. Last year, commercial farmers bought 4300 Romney and Romney composite rams bred within the Wairere network of base and franchise flocks.

Around 75% of sales are Romney rams and the balance are Romney-based composites. Two-thirds of sales were to South Island farmers, reflecting where the major concentration of sheep exists today.

“You have to give Derek credit for the way he’s grown Wairere. The growth has been through franchised flock arrangements that have given the flock owners some great opportunities.

“Trevor Peters at Wairere South has built his business from 4000 stock units 10 years ago to 65,000 stock units today. That speaks volumes for Derek’s unselfish approach to growing the business.

“Murray Gemmell, who runs the Wairere King flock in the King Country has just bought another property too. I attribute that success to the team approach and our sheep.”

Syben says the selection philosophy adopted by Derek’s father John still exists today. “We feed our sheep to push the poorer performers out the bottom, not feed them up to push out the top performers. That’s significant when you compare our approach to many others.”

He says Wairere has been fortunate to have the services of flock manager Simon Buckley for the past 20 years.

“It’s a genuine art to have sheep pushed along really hard, yet still in good shape by sale time. Simon’s skills with the practical and technical management of the flock have had a major impact on its success.

“Having such large numbers of ewes means we have the opportunity to put huge culling pressure on our rams. Apart from using outside rams bred within the Wairarapa Romney Improvement Group, Wairere has also introduced several rams from other sources to gauge the flock’s performance against other leading flocks.

“We’ve got the numbers that allow us to cull the ewe lambs bred from any ram that fails to perform. We cull more than 80% of all the ram lambs born each year.”

Syben says Wairere management have been quick to adopt new technologies but has been cautious with the adoption of the DNA-based parentage system that does away with the need for tagging lambs as they are born in the paddock.

“Our issue there is that we collect valuable mothering ability data when we tag lambs in the paddock. The DNA approach does away with that. If a ewe doesn’t return to her lambs, she is culled. That’s the way it’s been done at Wairere for the past 40 years.”

Syben says there is a strong linkage between mothering ability and survivability in lambs.

“It shows in how our clients’ flocks are performing in some pretty difficult environments. We’ve got clients like Lindsay Haugh who scanned 164% last year and docked 152%, and Steve Gallagher at Fairlie who scanned 198% and weaned 168% in 2004.”

Looking ahead, Syben says he expects further steady growth in ram sales. “We’ve tended to have a year of sales growth, then a year of consolidation, followed by another year of increased sales. That suits because continuous growth would create some challenges.”

Syben says the approach to all clients is the same, regardless of order size.

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