Sheep worth the 1500km trip

Mr Scanlan, who runs a Dorper meat sheep and cereal cropping operation at 2500ha property Euendoo, bought 11 rams from Low Lamb Footprint's first on-farm auction in western Victoria last month to inject some genetics that have serious worm resistance.

"We're in a flood at the moment and we've got one farm that takes a reasonable amount of water and barber's pole worm is an ongoing issue," Mr Scanlan said.

Mr Scanlan did have shedding sheep with good worm tolerance, but due to the drought, he sold them all in 2016.

When conditions improved in late 2019, he started his flock again, buying sheep from WA.

One of the first things he noticed was they hadn't had much exposure to worms.

"In terms of worm resistance, we were probably starting a fair way back from where we'd left off prior to the drought," Mr Scanlan said.

He decided one of the most important traits to get back into the flock was a degree of worm resistance.

"I looked around the countryside to see who in the shedding sheep business might have the best worm resistance, in combination with a number of other traits as well.

"Matt Kelly's sheep appeared to me to really fit the bill for us even though they were geographically a hell of a long way from us. I was just really impressed with what Matt was doing.

"The other advantage is the sheep are quite genetically different to ours, so we'll hopefully pick up a certain amount of heterosis.

"In that cross between two different genetic types, we're going to see some improvement in performance, hopefully."

The Low Lamb Footprint genetic pool started in 2007 when Matt Kelly and his wife Brigid grazed Coopworth ewes on leased country in Bluegum forests at Simpson and Condah.

They then purchased a small number of Wiltipoll ewes in 2009 and a mob of Wiltshire Horn X White Dorpers in 2010.

They bred rams from the better ewes and crossed them with the Coopworths. They also purchased rams from Cashmore Park's newly established Nudie flock.

Then in 2015, they found their home base, purchasing a small farm at Croxton East, 15km east of Hamilton.

Mr Scanlan is just his second Queensland client.

"I had a mate up at Gympie who got rams off me 10 years ago and he tested them out up there," Mr Kelly said.

"He bought a little flock of Wiltipoll ewes and they were struggling with worms. He was down here doing cattle and sheep work on contract in a little truck and he took a couple of rams home. Within a very short period of time, they made a big impact on his flock.

"He got to the point where he was just letting them run wild essentially and not drenching them at all and they were coping quite well.

"That certainly gave me the confidence that it could work up there, but he is the only other guy who's taken them that far north."

Mr Scanlan said building up worm resistance in his 2500 Dorper ewes could also help with public perception due to fewer chemicals being used.

"Consumers may be positive about sheep that have got less drenching, less insecticides. So we're trying to reduce our costs and make it more appealing to the public."

Mr Scanlan is still working out the best way to get the rams home, but is confident of having them on-farm in time for joining in March.

He is also buying other high fertility shedding rams out of SA, so he's hoping to put the two consignments together.

Looking to the future, the Goondiwindi grazier is considering moving to a full sheep system to simplify operations and to focus on Rebel Seeds, a seed business he operates with business partners.

He's currently in the process of converting some old cropping country back into grass pastures.

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