Taruna Farm at the present time winters 1200 ewes and 350 ewe hoggets. The flock is a composite breed made up of a mixture of Coopworth, NZ Finn, East Friesian and Texel crosses. This cross gives us a lambing potential determined by scanning around 180-190% and the challenge is to convert this to a high lambs-on-the-ground figure which at the moment is around 165%  ie., ewes mated to lambs tailed.  Breeding rams are sourced from Ceres Farm in Whitehall and are selected for FE tolerance and a balance of SIL Indexes ie., fertility, survival, wool weight and cleanliness.

Just under half the flock are mated for breeding replacements, the balance are mated to a terminal sire which is a Suffolk/Texel. The hoggets are also mated to the Suffolk/Texel.  

Rams are joined with the ewes around the 20 March and ram crayons are used to facilitate lambing.  Ewes are, with the exception of the singles, fully shepherded at lambing time. To minimise lamb losses our daughter Amy oversees an Orphan Lamb Rearing Project. Lambs are supplied to local school children on a sale/or return basis for them to enter into their local Agricultural Day events. Orphan lambs are reared in pens on shavings and fed colostrum supplied by a local dairy farmer and muesli supplements. The operation was featured in the August 2005 edition of Countrywide.

Wool

Shearing is based on a split flock shearing system  which allows for half the ewes, based on their age,  to be shorn every eight months. The main shearing times are March, July and December. The advantage of this system is that most of the ewes fit into the night pen at each shearing  (4 stand shed 500+ night pen) and shearing is usually completed in less than a day.

Wool is sold to the Elders/Primary Wool Co Op Partnership with the expectation of being included in a ‘Just Shorn’ contract when the contracts are finalised.