Welcome to Edale
Welcome to the Edale Merino Stud, a low micron, high fleece weight sheep stud situated near the town of Moora, in the wheatbelt region of Western Australia, 180km north of Perth.
Established in 1981, Edale is a family run enterprise with generational history within the Moora district dating back to the Hon. James Gardiner, an early pioneer and farmer in the late 1800's and Treasurer of Western Australia in 1901.
Edale is currently run by James Gardiner, with close support from James' parents Philip and Jennifer, James' partner Karine, as well as support from Philip and Jennifer's eldest son Charles, who, with his young family, lives in Melbourne. The family takes great pride in the local history of the Gardiner family which is now it it's 6th generation.
2024 EDALE RAM SALE
Tuesday 17th September 2024
Field Day from 11am
1pm Ram Sale
555 Cattady Road, Moora, WA 6510
50 Rams for sale
"Helmsman Auction"
The Edale Operation
Edale operates as a working wool producing farm breeding genetically advanced rams rather than a ram breeding operation with small wool producing capacity. Edale also operates a diverse cropping program, including wheat, canola, barley and lupins throughout the 10,000 acre property.
The Edale Property
Edale is winter rainfall dependent and has half its arable area under crops and half under legume pasture. Soils range from clayey sand to deep clay with most being clayey loam. Weighted average organic carbon is 1.4% (Western Australian measured) and pH is 5.8.
The Edale Flock
Edale has a winter grazed stocking rate of between 8.3 and 11.4 dry sheep equivalents/ha (DSEs/ha) being around 9,500-11,500 hd, and the balance is under crops. In excess of 40 kgs greasy wool is produced per winter grazed ha, averaging 14kgs wool/ha/100mm growing season rainfall.
Efficient Sheep
Edale has a record of breeding Efficient Sheep with a focus on per hectare return.
This is achieved through a genetic program which breeds sheep with highly dense wool to produce more wool per hectare at a Fibre Diameter that gives Edale and its clients the benefit of selling adult wool into the sub-18 micron markets.
Other key traits and breeding objectives:
1) Low micron
--> 15.0-15.5 micron adult wool for the Edale Ultrafine Merino Stud (150 ewes)
--> 17.0-17.5 micron adult wool for the Edale Merino Stud (750 ewes)
--> Sub-18 micron adult wool for the Edale Commercial Flock (2500 ewes)
2) Highly dense wool (high fleece weight)
3) Early maturity
4) Mid-size adult sheep (60-70kgs) to maximise stocking rate and per/ha returns (sheep eat 3% of their body weight)
5) Worm resistance
6) Wrinkle free skins (high fly resistance)
7) Lustrous, defined, elegant wool
8) High fertility
Edale Sires in the top 50 of all time
Throughout the past 20 years, Edale has had sires which have been included amongst the best 50 all-time sires. These sires have been entered in the renowned Merino Superior Sires Evaluations and had their progeny assessed by measurement and visual evaluation. The all-time best sires for each of the indexes are listed in the 4 Merino Select Indexes.
The Merino Superior Sires (MSS) website, www.merinosuperiorsires.com.au, has full details.
Edale currently has sires as entrants in the following Sire Evaluation Trials:
2017 Pingelly, WA, MLP trial - Edale sire 10Z266K
2022 Kattaning, WA, DPIRD Yardstick trial - Edale sire 15Z035
2023 New England, NSW, MSS trial - Edale sire 19X454
2023 Muresk, WA, MSS trial - Edale sire 19X454
2023 Balmoral, VIC, MSS trial - Edale sire 20Z350
In 2019, Edale had 2 sires listed in the MSS report covering the 2014-2018 drops; 3 in the 2018 report covering the 2013-2017 drops. For the 2019 report, 03K071 is listed in the top 50 sires in the Dual Purpose Index and 08E239 is listed in the top 50 sires in the Wool Production Index.
Each of these sires are descendents of our Edale bred 99Z340S who was the #1 ranked sire in the country.
30 year history of successful genetics
This chart shows the key historical averages of Edale's Commercial Flock since 1990. The average micron has fallen from 22.8 in 1990 to 17.7 in 2022. The greasy fleece weight continues to hold a 6kg average.
