“Geoff & Janine Meyer were late entering farming, but like everything else they’ve done in life, there was always only one option, make a success of it!
Starting with the normal practice of the Western Districts by buying in First Cross Ewes and using terminal sires, after a few years Geoff with his 2ic Jeremy King decided they wanted something different and an improvement on what they had.
Geoff and Jeremy wanted better mothering ability resulting in better survival from their ewes, black feet to reduce the incidence of lameness, black points to prevent skin cancer, less drenching (Wairere don’t drench adult sheep), better constitution and ewes that lasted longer.
Most of all they wanted to breed their own replacements to mitigate the importation of parasites from other properties and not be reliant on market fluctuations when purchasing 2th Ewes.
Geoff and Jeremy did their research and looked at what other like- minded farmers were doing. They decided to give Wairere Romneys a go and in 2017 purchased 12 rams to join with their 1000 best looking ewes.
Two years on where are they? Jeremy says he feels like he has fixed everything in one foul swoop! The lambs were born in some terrible Western Districts weather and just had the get up and go that other lambs lack.
“From the 1000 ewes mated we managed to draft 500 lambs exactly to the type we were looking for.
They hung in incredibly well during this season’s long dry, requiring minimal drenching, and we have ewe hoggets lambing now.”
A recent trip to visit Wairere in New Zealand has given Jeremy the confidence that he is on the right track, and he plans to increase his ewe numbers at the expense of the cattle.
“Beef production feels like commodity production, everyone in the world is doing it! Being involved in lamb production feels like being involved in high quality food production. Waireres give us more to sell, it’s that simple!”
