Breeding History
Edale Stud Innovation History
There is a number of firsts, or early adopter innovations, which have made significant contributions to the success of Edale’s genetics.
Fine wool sheep North of Great Eastern Highway
Edale’s genetic base comprises two branches; the Edale Merino Stud and the Ultrafine Merino Stud.
The Edale Merino Stud, previously named the Edale Medium Fine Stud ("MF") originated with the Kardella Peppin genetics purchased from the Peter Bullock family in 1987 and has been injected with top line genetics from around Australia to fulfill Edale's stud breeding objectives.
The Edale Ultrafine Merino Stud ("UF"), previously named the Edale Superfine Stud ("SF"), was built from the purchase of maiden ewes from Hillcreston, Crookwell, NSW owned by the Picker family, renowned for their world record wool prices for their superfine wool in 1988.
Pedigree Both Male and Female
Edale’s owners bred with equal relevance of both male and female genetic traits. As a consequence, Edale was among the first Merino breeders in Australia to pedigree both male and female parentage of progeny in 1988. It was also among the first to record pedigree and other measured data electronically, purchasing the software after seeing it demonstrated at the Sydney Royal Show. We were intrigued when we posted a photograph introducing people to Edale’s field day in 1988 of our AI sire looking at a desktop computer containing this computer software detailing pedigree records. At that time it was not understood within the merino wool industry.
Focus on Primary/Secondary Follicle Ratio and low curvature for Fibre Diameter
In 1990, Edale hired the late Dr Jim Watts to assist taking the medium fines and the superfines to a different genetic level. The essential contribution which Jim Watts made to Edale genetics was the education of the biology of the skin producing the wool fibre and directing Edale to the genetic flocks carrying these characteristics including Koonwarra (7.56; and others); Severn Park (Son of Bubbles); Gowandale (4023); Wallalloo Park (WP27;WP34;WP40); Charinga (“Munchie”; White 20); Glendemar and Wallinar. It was very much about the secondary/primary follicle ratio – every follicle group has 3 primary fibres with a varying number of secondary and secondary derived fibres - and growing defined, lustrous wool with a low curvature or crimp frequency for the fibre diameter.
This knowledge assisted Edale to propel itself forward after Jim left in 1997 to breed a number of sires to rank in the top 50 rankings of the Merino Superior Sires evaluations and being trait leaders in the Sheep Genetics Australia (SGA) indexes.
Coating SF Adult Sheep
To advance our super/ultrafine wool presentation, in 1989 it was decided to use coats on the sheep to protect their wool from dust, designed to improve wool yield. Imported from NSW, these first coats were made using polypropylene – a possible contaminant of wool. So in 1991, canvas was purchased to make redesigned coats on property. With low micron wool prices then having collapsed these were also found to be too labour intensive at the time to be commercially advantageous. Further, despite the wool being clean of dust and VM, wool yield did not respond positively.
Bioclip Shearing
Bioclip shearing was an excellent prospect for the harvest of ultra/superfine wool from lambs, and other sheep, developed by Australia’s CSIRO. Injecting a concentrated protein into the sheep, the wool developed a break, allowing it to fall away from the skin of the animal. It meant there were no skin pieces; the lambs' skin was not cut, preserving its integrity for subsequent shearings; and the wool had a lower coefficient of variation of length due no second cuts.
Edale adopted this technology over 4 years, including when Heiniger acquired the licence to propagate the technology. The weakest part of the technology was the structure of the nets which were required to hold the wool against the sheep’s body following the induced break which separated the wool from the sheep’s body. It proved difficult to contain the wool from falling away from the net at its edges. Heiniger finally suspended their development of the technology.
Value Chain Integration - JayaShree, Calcutta, India
In 2001, Edale entered into a commercial arrangement to sell Edale's wool to JayaShree, now a contributing arm of the wool enterprise conducted by the large Indian conglomerate, Aditya Birla. Jayashree offered Western Australian woolgrowers to process their individual flock’s wool separately so that a grower could assess their flock’s wool processing performance.
By now, Edale was breeding sheep with wool which had a low frequency crimp (low curvature) for the measured fibre diameter. Following making of the first 120t shipment into tops, JayaShree advised that they had an unusual difference to their normal tops measurement. They had never had such a large difference between what the then TEAM Formula predicted from taking the AWTA measurements of fibre diameter, yield, VM and tensile strength and the actual results. JayaShree felt it was due to the low CV staple length, but this wasn’t materially different to the norms.
In our view there was clearly an un-measured wool feature causing the result. We were confident that it was to do with the low curvature of the wool for the fibre diameter which had been developing with Edale’s wool and which has, since then become accepted across the wool processing industry.
Six shipments were made to JayaShree, each performing similarly, generating prices materially higher than the wool market at the time with the third shipment on. It demonstrates the long term relationship benefits as the relationship trust grew.
It remains a suprise to this day that in spite of attempts to introduce stud principals who had a much wider genetic selling base than Edale’s that they all declined to take up this extraordinary offer from the Indians.
Use of Smartreader for Pedigreeing
Pedigreeing progeny is central to sound genetic progress. Pedigreeing was done with a high degree of accuracy from 1990 to 2011. Ewes had their ID and sire mating branded on their sides at 7mths wool. At lambing, the lamb was caught at the day of birth with a crook and ID tagged. The dam’s number and mating sire were read from the marking on the ewe. This data was submitted to Sheep Genetics Australia from where estimated breeding values were calculated.
From 2011 this faltered due to a number of external and internal reasons, being rebooted in 2019 where a combination of recording through Gallagher’s smartreader became effective; and using DNA testing for part of the mating was introduced.
Central Sire Testing of Genetic Merit
In 2002, Edale entered 99Z340S into the Central Sire Testing, an Australia wide testing of the genetic merit of sires. His 2003 progeny in the trial’s hogget body weight was -4.7kgs, yet due to his exceptional GFW and CFW (Clean Fleece Weight) for his fibre diameter, his progeny in the trial ranked him between 2nd and 6th best performing sire across the country on the 3 indexes calculated. His exceptional strength was his GFW and CFW for his low hogget FD which in the Merino Superior Sires report of 2006 showed he produced the second highest CFW when his FD measured -.8 microns, while the highest CFW (by only .6%) had a FD of +3.1 microns.
Sons of 99Z340S, 02K071 and 03K065 also ranked highly in their trials, but it was 08E239, whose mother was a grand-daughter of 99Z340S, sire Centre Plus 107351, which was entered in the 2010 and 2011 trials which showed the quality of the genetic development within the stud. 08E239 still ranks as of the 2016 Merino Superior Sires report 15th-18th across all indexes of the top 50 sires across the country – this includes the dual purpose index.
Non-Mulesing
From 2008, Edale ceased mulesing lambs. However, because graziers at that stage continued their belief that mulesing was central to fly protection, there was no market for non mulesed maiden ewes. They sold for a $20/hd discount to mulesed lambs. As a consequence, between 600-900 ewe lambs were mulesed so that flock size could be managed and their wool being declared mulesed accordingly.
All of Edale's sheep are now non-mulesed.
Edale devised a formula which is more effective than mulesing for fly management. It involves five tactics:
i) Getting rid of worms. This took us around 4 years. In 2017, 2018 & 2019, no adult sheep was drenched – drenching was confined only to weaners at weaning
ii) Eliminating dirty breeches
iii) Applying Clik* (to the breeches only) of all sheep on the property
iv) Breeding wrinckle out of the breech area
v) Culling for terminal purposes any sheep which became fly struck, this being explicit evidence of breech wrinkle capturing moisture which then attracts flies to lay their eggs.
Sheep to Garment
During 2019, Edale agreed with Australian Wool Network (AWN), an innovative leader in the wool industry, to provide wool for inclusion in garments bearing the Hedrena and Merino Snug brand. These brands seek elite, non mulesed wools which provides customers with soft, sensuous, luxurious wool from the highest welfare cared sheep. AWN prepares a branded video describing how sheep are managed on the property of origin to provide the consumer a sense of the quality of management which underpins the wool in the garment which they buy and wear.
Edale Sire 10Z266K in Merino Lifetime Productivity Project (MLP), “Ridgefield”, Pingelly, WA
In 2017, Edale’s 10Z266K was accepted into the national MLP project, to contribute to the trial being held at the University of WA’s farm at Pingelly, Western Australia. One of the central focuses of the trial is to breed from ewes following the first generation to determine the ongoing quality of the sire’s genetics.
Results of the F1 (first generation) ewes showed that 10Z266K had very high fecundity in this trial, and was a trait leader in the trial for adult GFW and CFW as well as being a trait leader for post weaning FD. 10Z266K is not a big sheep - the productivity is in the biology of the skin – and the combination of small size (which means eating less), high lambing %, high GFW and CFW with low FD demonstrates this sire's productive efficiency and makes his progeny desirable for growers seeking to improve their wool/ha/100mls GSR at an adult FD around 18.7 microns which is below that of the average adult FD for the trial of 19 microns.