The competetive edge:
At Rosedale we don't breed sheep for "hard country" or for "easy country. We breed sheep that perform wherever they go. Production is our prime objective, with the competition effect our strongest culling tool.

In the drive to identify Superior Genetics and pass this improvement onto commercial clients, Rosedale Romneys has an ongoing programme of measureing those productive traits most influencing sheep profitability. In addition to the standard production figures of lamb weaning weights, growth rates and hogget fleece weights, technology now allows a far more accurate assessment of production.

Fertility/Elite Performance
Only twin/triplet progeny are retained for replacement purposes.Sires are also available from a line of 5000 commercial ewes which have been screened to an Elite mob, with over 200% lambing history. All progeny are assessed along with the progeny from 500 Stud ewes. New clients are reporting cumulative fertility lifts of up to 5% per year.

Lamb Survival Weighing all lambs at birth has revealed the Sire lines with the highest birth weights- the biggest determinant of lamb survival. This information when combined with achieved fertility allows us to sell with confidence those rams to most quickly increase clients lamb production.

Micron and Yield Testing
In addition to micron testing ewe replacements into the Stud flock, all ram hoggets have been micron and yield tested for the last 10 years. This programme has identified medium woolled Sires capable of peak wool production and a line of finer, high producing sheep.

Muscle and Growth All Sale rams have been scanned for Eye Muscle Area (EMA) for over 10 years and this information correlated with Liveweight to give a Meat Production Score. There is a high correlation between EMA and lamb growth rates. Worm Resistance All sale rams have been blood sampled and faecal egg tested to identify host worm resistance

Studfax Recorded/SIL Analysed | visit www.studfax.com |
Full use is made of the Studfax Sheep Performance programme. It has been the main analysis tool to measure and identify the Genetic progress made at Rosedale over the last 10 years.

Sheep Improvement Ltd (SIL) | visit www.sheepimprovement.co.nz |
SIL is now providing the next step forward in the analysis process, and allows for the very accurate identification of Superior Sires.

Southland Otago Romney Group (SORG) | visit SORG |
As members of the Southland Otago Romney Group, an innovative and progressive team of 13 registered Romney breeders, we are able to benchmark all production levels. Through Sire Referencing we have been able to identify Superior Genetics and pass this leading advantage on to commercial clients.