Brookfield – Romney Rams
Welcome to the Brookfield Romney Rams.
Breeding Romney Sheep is a real passion of ours. We aim to produce:
- the best, most efficient Romney Rams in New Zealand.
- Romneys ewe's that will thrive in hard hill country and leave lambs that will grow fast when ample grass is available.
- Romney rams, which leave daughters that have plenty of lambs and rear them to killable weights off mum.
- All sheep retained in the flock must be structually correct
The structure is in place to achieve exactly this. This involves the entire ewe flock being run at Omatane, 20 kilometres east of Taihape on a 1600 acre medium to steep hill country property and lambing unshepherded. Any ewes which do not rear lambs are removed. Having accurate recording at docking, which is when lambs are two weeks of age, and again accurate weaning and autumn weights. The lambs are brought down to Kiwitea in mid March and put on good feed to see which ones can really grow when ample grass is available, then the ram hoggets go up to Ridge Road to the steep hill country for three and a half months over winter and this is to see which romney rams can hold their body weight right through winter when limited grass is available. This structure is so important, as we see how fast they can grow when ample grass is available and then what ones can’t handle it when limited grass is there over winter. The ewe hoggets are individually mated to high index ram hoggets for 16 days then older sires from Taihape for 16 days which gives good linkages. After weaning in December the ewe hoggets go back to Mike Cottrell’s at Taihape for the rest of their lives.
Also being a member of the TRIGG group enables us as of right to access any ram within the group to mate ewes too. This brings in new blood from proven romney rams which is essential. We also run a separate progeny trial at Kerry Osborne’s property north of Ashhurst where 11 of the best breeders in New Zealand from Keri Keri in Northland to the southern Wairarapa enter there best ram. This trial lets everyone know exactly how their sheep grow in relation to the best in New Zealand. All breeders in this trial are fully linked so we do complete across flock analysis of current breeding rams and ram and ewe hoggets.
We are trying to breed Romney rams with a level of tolerance to facial eczema and parasites as these two things have a huge financial cost to sheep farming in New Zealand.
We breed rams with guaranteed constitution and a high level of fertility for progressive farmers. Our sheep are very structurally correct, very open faced and have medium wool. We really enjoy the challenges of breeding and are very focused on producing the best Romney Rams in New Zealand.
Click on the Partners tab above to hear how each person is envolved in producing these romney rams.
By clicking on the Performance tab above you will see the records of all ram hoggets for sale and their sires.
Semen now available from Brookfield 214/05. Check him out on our sires list. Extremely high Nlbbv . Excema GGT -54