Wiltipoll Field day at Kars 26th Nov 2011
An inaugural Wiltipoll information Field Day was recently held at Kars attended by about 60 people.
The Field Day was to further promote the breed in the region and to educate local pastoralists on the benefits of the breed. “A completely shedding sheep has no need to be tail docked, resulting in less stress on the animal and less work for the producer”, Kars Pastoral Co’s Annie Hughes said.
Guest speakers at the Field Day included San Jolly from Productive Nutrition SA, who spoke about sheep and lamb nutrition in the Rangelands as well as the development of her Wiltipoll/Dorper composite flock at Kapunda, SA.
Sue Shelton from NASAA Certified Organic, Stirling SA, spoke about converting an existing prime lamb enterprise to an organic one, and Hayden Cope demonstrated the Pratley sheep two-way auto drafter.
Well known Wiltipoll breeder Annie Hughes spoke on the development of the Kars Wiltipoll flock and the running of the breed on the station compared with running Merinos.
An auction was held at the Field day where 30 rams sold to $600/head.
Kars Pastoral Co sold Wiltipoll rams and ewes, while San Jolly, Wonoka, Kapunda, SA sold Wiltipoll/Dorper composite rams. Garry Hannigan, Churinga, Broken Hill was the volume buyer of both the Wiltipoll and composite rams, while Garry and Julie Sparks, Jamestown, SA were also buyers of a number of Wiltipoll rams.
An indigenous community group bought 600 Kars Pastoral Co ewes at an average of $250/head, which will be run on their Tjilkaba property near Ceduna, on the far west-coast of SA.