Carbon Dioxide Emmissions by Livestock and Carbon Sequestration- Get the facts right
January 31, 2011

David Mason-Jones new book is a breath of fresh air, all farmers should read this book and send a copy to their city cousins and a copy to their local MP

In April 2010, David completed research on, and published, an 85,000 word book titled 'Should meat be on the menu?' The Dewey Number for the book is 363.7387 - Atmospheric carbon dioxide - Australia; Meat industry and trade - Environmental aspects - Australia; Global warming; Food chains (Ecology).

The book deals with the issue of the global warming gases emitted from farm animals. It points out that, far from being net emitters of carbon, sheep, cattle and other livestock only emit the same amount of carbon as they source via plants. The plants, in turn, source their carbon from carbon dioxide in the atmosphere through photosynthesis. The net result is, carbon-in equals carbon-out. There is no net gain.

David's book points out that, not only are farm animals neutral with respect to the atmospheric carbon cycle, they can actually be the agents of significant carbon dioxide draw down from the atmosphere and its long term sequestration in the soil.

"Should Meat Be on the Menu" can be purchased from David’s Web site www.journalist.com.au

David was a speaker at the 2010 Dorper Forum and a copy of his power point presentation is available to
[ view here ].

Making The Most of Dorper Genetics
November 30, 2010

The dorper breed has introduced another dimension to the Australian sheep farming scene.

Their hardiness and easy care traits make them suitable for a wide range of Australian environments.

This is an exerpt from a presentation that was recently presented at the Dorper Forum. You can view the full presentation here.

Elite ewes from WA head East
November 25, 2010

1000 of Dawson Bradfords Poll Dorset stud ewes have found a new home in NSW at Burrawang White Dorper Stud.

Hillcroft Farms, Dawson Bradfords Poll Dorset Stud has had been leading the Lambplan figures for some years, the 1000 ewes have carcass plus figures from 160 to 200 with most between 170 and 195.

The tough conditions in Western Australia this season had prompted Mr Bradford to lighten up on stock and he decided that it would be the Dorper/Dorset shedding ewes that he has been breeding up for the last four years that would stay at Hillcroft, the easy care sheep do not require shearing and he has sold the majority of his Poll Dorset ewes to Graham and Jana Pickles of Burrawang in Condobolin, NSW.

Burrawang is one of the leading White Dorper Studs in NSW and also runs 6,000 commercial white Dorper cross bred ewes, Graham Pickles said “ That he felt the opportunity to buy such a great line of ewes was a once in a lifetime opportunity, Dawson is one of the best Breeders in the industry and this line of sheep represents 40years of careful breeding and selection” He said that he would be putting only his best White Dorper stud rams over the poll dorset ewes and the female offspring would be retained for their commercial breeding flock.

The first 500 ewes arrived at Burrawang on Saturday the 20th of November with the second shipment in arriving December 5th. Mr Pickles said that he would be selling around 1300 cross bred white Dorper ewes in December to make way for the Elite Ewes.

Dorpers Come First With Ram Trial
August 11, 2010 Condobolin Argus

Wicus Cronje, a highly respected Judge, Inspector and Classer of Dorpers in South Africa, was on hand on Monday at the Condobolin Agricultural Research and Advisory Station (CARAS) for the very first Dorper Ram Paddock Performance Trial and Sale.

This inaugural Dorper (including White Dorper) Ram Paddock Performance Trial & Sale has been modelled on the South African “Veld Sales”. These are rapidly gaining prominence as the preferred means of identifying high performance rams. The Paddock Performance Sale is a unique genetic evaluation process using both phenotyping (classing) and objective measurement to select elite rams in the absence of environmental variation.

President of the Eastern Region Dorper Society, Graham Pickles of “Burrawang” Ootha, approached Dean Patton, Manager at the Condobolin research station with the idea to manage the trial under independent conditions and with expert staff and ideal facilities. Graham said, “This is most valuable type of ram trial and sales, all these stud animals are raised under the same unsupplemented paddock conditions as opposed to the traditional national sales method where the sheep are fed on high protein diets.”

“With the latter, the buyer has limited means of determining the impact of these environmental variations on his purchase. This is the first trial of its type for any sheep breed to be conducted in Australia.”
Dean said, “I am very pleased that we can accommodate these rams at the Condobolin ARAS.”
“This trial is important to the Research Station as it increases the diversity of industry funded activities on the station".

Dorpers have increased in popularity in this district considerably over the last 10 years.
“I believe there are many opportunities this type of sheep contributes to the industry.”
“I look forward to working with the Dorper stud breeders over the next twelve months.”
“I have a long term view that there is a need to compare alternative sheep enterprises in this environment and we are ideally situated.”

“While many local groups are interested in such a comparison, funding sources are limited so I hope this project strengthens our case to undertake further livestock research at the Condobolin ARAS.”

According to the breeders, the trial will resolve the inefficiencies of the existing ram sales by removing environmental variation; by utilising a skilled sheep classer, Wicus Cronje; and by using the latest objective measurement technology, then combining all these into a single assessment.

Wicus said, “This process has been running in South Africa for a very long time and is the way rams will be sold in the future – everyone gets treated exactly the same and the buyer knows what they get in the end. It is all about quality control and having an independent [CARAS] involved is a very good thing.”

On Monday, the rams, aged between 100 and 120 days old were inoculated, visually assessed and electronically ear tagged for recording of the performance testing and put into the data base for LAMBPLAN.
Sheep Genetics LAMBPLAN is a world class tool to objectively benchmark sheep performance across breeding flocks. It assists in the identification of high performance sires where environmental circumstances vary, creating the potential for ram buyers to achieve higher rates of genetic gain. Nick Pagett of ‘Winrae Dorpers’, Bourke said, “We’re very interested in what is happening as it is the first of its kind – it will be exciting to find out about the results when they come through.” Over the course of the eight month trial objective measurements (weight, eye muscle, fat depth etc) will be regularly recorded.

At the conclusion of the trial the rams will again be classed and all rams will be ranked using a combination of performance derived by measurement and the classing of the rams against the breed standard of excellence. Rams remain anonymous during the course of the trial to remove the potential for bias. This will then be followed by a sale.