Unmulesed and polled rams a focus for Grassy Creek

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If there is one thing Grassy Creek Merinos is passionate about, it is producing sheep that will perform.

And whether it is in the show arena or in the paddock, the Corkhill family is ensuring its exceptional Merinos are turning heads.

Michael and Jane Corkhill, Grassy Creek Merinos, Reids Flat, will again be offering an impressive line-up of rams at their 12th annual on-farm sale.

But at this year's sale, which will take place on Monday, October 9, they are increasing their offering to 200 rams.

This will include 170 polled rams and 30 horned rams, which are predominantly by homebred sires.

But this is only the beginning of what the Grassy Creek ram team has to offer.

"This year will be our first offering of unmulesed rams," Mr Corkhill said.

"We've been breach scoring now for a number of years. We've got a nucleus of ewes that we have sent that direction, and we've got some mules-free, productive rams on offer, most of which will be polled rams.

"We've got some outstanding progeny from sires Grassy Creek 200102, 200124 and 200120."

Grassy Creek 200102 sold for $14,000 to Coryule Poll Merino stud, 200124 sold for $21,000 at the 2022 Grassy Creek sale to Kullingra Merino stud, and 200120 sold for $7000 to Valley Vista Poll Merino stud.

Polled rams have been a big feature of the Grassy Creek sale for years.

"Our sale has tended that way solidly for nine years," he said.

"Our clients have pushed us that way, but we also have some strong horned clients that we still heavily invest in and breed for."

All of Grassy Creek's rams will have Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBV) data.

"They will have current measurements and they are micron tested twice - they are tested at shearing time in May and then done again in mid-August," he said.

He said the Grassy Creek flock's long-term fibre diameter average was 17.2 micron.

"At ram sale time, our rams average 17.3 or 17.4 micron, and average 85 to 90 kilograms on sale day," he said.

"We believe we are offering a fantastic group of rams that show the direction we have chosen."

Something that Mr Corkhill is particularly proud of is the way wethers from Grassy Creek's genetics have shone in wether trials.

"In the past 12 months, we've had several different clients going in wether trials. One of our commercial clients was the 2018 to 2022 Bookham Wether Trial top commercial entry over the four years.

"He competed 12 years ago and finished 59th out of 62 teams. And now he's gone to being the top commercial entry in 12 years.

"We had four teams in the 2021 to 2023 Peter Westblade Memorial, and they finished in the top 30 per cent of the trial, and that includes wool and carcase data.

"We have a team in the current 2023 to 2027 Bookham Wether Trial, and we had the finest testing group in the first shearing."

For Mr Corkhill, wether trials are an ideal way to find out how sheep are performing in the paddock.

"For me, it's real time data - it's actual. It is what is happening in the paddock. These are all clients that have been with us for eight to 10 years," he said.

"We've got lots of sheep being measured in the commercial world - they are being measured for both carcase information but also wool production, in relation to wool cut, fibre diameter, staple length and strength.

"In wether trials we are a high action bloodline - we have had lots of teams over the years competing and consistently doing well.

"We've been quite excited to see how our clients have performed in trials."

But they don't just perform in the paddock - Grassy Creek has had rams excelling in sire evaluation.

"In the MerinoLink Sire Evaluation site at Frogmore, which finished this year, our resident sire 180553 performed really well across all indexes, as well as visual classing. He was exceptionally good on staple strength," he said.

"In a previous MerinoLink evaluation two years before, sire 160253 was one of the leaders across all indexes, whether it was dual purpose (DP), Merino production (MP) or fibre production (FP) indexes."

Grassy Creek rams have also shone in the show arena.

"We won the pen of three at the South West Slopes Merino Field Day two weeks ago, on top of winning it last year," he said.

When it comes down to it, the Corkhill family knows exactly what their clients need - they are focused on wool growing themselves.

"We are a wool growing operation - our business is based on our Merino sheep," he said.

"Our classer in Craig Wilson - he has been classing for us for more than 20 years.

"We've invested heavily in what we do - we've carried out AI on over a thousand ewes this year and run a commercial flock of 3500 ewes."

The Grassy Creek Merino sale will take place on October 9, with inspections taking place from 9am, with the sale kicking off at 1pm.

An online catalogue will be available by the end of September, and pre-inspections the week before the sale are welcome.

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