Edale - Superfine and Medium Fine Sheep Stud - Quality Wool from Australia

Historical Performance & Benchmarking

Micron of the adult sheep is currently at 17.3 and the GFW exceeds 4.1kg/head
Edale's Superfine breeding has drawn on the low micron Edale Medium Fine Wool sire 99Z 340S, who in the 2005 medium wool category of the Merino Superior Sires publication compiled by CSIRO and the NSW Department of Primary Industries, was the 2nd highest ranking sire in the country (the highest ranking Western Australian sire) of the Central Test Sire Evaluation results conducted over the period 1989 to 2002 matings. Breeding has also continued with the traditional superfine style wool, mainly using Edale superfine sires.
Wether Trials of commercial wethers of the Edale Superfine breeding rank amongst the finest in W.A. and recognising that these 6 month old wethers were the lowest body weight of all participants on entry in the trial, their performance was all the more interesting. They were born into one of the latest season breaks historically at Moora; their mothers were in score condition 1.5 - 2.0 at birth that would have adversely affected their wool follicle development and consequently would have caused their micron to be higher and their CFW to be lower. Even so, the Edale superfine wethers had the best fleece value based on the price received for the actual wool sold from the second shearing in February, 2003.

Edale superfine genetics produce high yields, long staples and heavy fleece cuts per head when benchmarked against other superfine sheep.
Micron for adult sheep has fallen from 18.2 in 1990 to 17.3 in 2004 while GFW has increased from 3.2kg/head to 4.1 kgs/head in 2004.

Adult sheep micron and greasy fleece weight relationship is on the border of being elite with respect to the Hutchins Index.

Curvature (crimp frequency) of approximately 50% of the ewe flock is significantly lower than "true to type" for the micron, on the basis that this wool will process with a superior performance with the remaining 50% of ewes having the traditional Saxon wool type.

Percentage of stud breeding ewes that conceived (including 30% maidens) is 72% with a potential lambing of 87% based on ultrasound testing for the 2005 lambing (83% and 108% respectively for 2004 lambing). The eventual result was 77% lambs marked to ewes mated. However, the superfine commercial ewes with approximately 20% maidens mated commencing late January showed a 91% ewe conception giving in utero lambs of 118%, a remarkable result for superfine ewes. The resultant marking % to ewes mated was 85% a good result despite high losses of twins occurring on one particularly cold night.