About Phoebe Sheep Stud
Phoebe Suffolk stud was established in 1994 with the purchase of 9 ewes, strong demand and a passion for breeding quality rams saw numbers quickly grow to a peak of 350 ewes.From the very early days our sheep have naturally been very high scanning sheep, I attribute alot of this to our main foundation sire Courteney 131/96.Our main focus is to produce an early maturing medium framed sheep, with most of our client base being from dryland North Canterbury it is very important for our clients to get lambs away early at good weights before the dry sets in.
As a fourth generation Stud Breeder(over 100 years,on the same property) I believe the skills I have gained over many years allow me to put in front of you the commercial farmer a line of rams that will contribute to the success of your business.
Although we are on SIL I am not a huge fan and will only use it as a guide at times. Any recording system is only as good as the information being put into it and I don't believe that all farmers are as conscientious and honest as some with the information recorded. We also now see a large number of bloodtests being done by some studs, I see most of these as gimmicks and reckon the only one making any money out of most of these is the person taking the Test.Quite simply there is no easy alternative to good old fashioned hard work and common sense when it comes to producing quality stock.
About 10 years ago we started using a Texel over the B mob of ewes and the Sufftex certainly has its place, adding yield and survivabilty traits.....this option has now been replaced by the Beltex/Suffolk
Currently 120 ewes are mated to the Suffolk ram, with the B mob(120) going to the Beltex ram. We are very excited by what we are seeing from the Beltex. Low birthweight, vigour, growth, yield ans superb eating!!! I love my Suffolks but these Beltex’s are going to take meat production in this country to the next level!!!...I have absolutely no doubt!!
My policy on stud sires is to only use quality and not to take shortcuts, it is often hard to find exactly what you like, so when we do see something we like, we will do our best to try to buy it. This applies even if we are not really needing a new stud sire,as you may find next year when we do need one we can't find what we are looking for.Our last 3 stud rams have been purchased for 5, 6 and $10000. I also like to use my own if I consider them good enough, by introducing outside blood too often your flock can change very quickly and not always for the better!!
