Allendale keeps on keeping on

The Day family’s long and successful history with their Allendale sheep and cattle studs makes it very hard to select specific highlights as there have been so many. Graham and Prue; Lachlan and Lou; Alastair and Jayne, run their highly credentialed Poll Dorset, Suffolk and White Suffolk sheep studs, along with their Poll Hereford cattle stud at Bordertown in the Upper South east of SA and just continue to ‘kick goals’.

Their annual sheep sale is held on the first Friday in October; this year being the 5th. Close on 400 stud and flock rams and stud ewes are offered each year from the 3 breeds. Offerings of this quality and volume are very rare in one venue, giving prospective buyers a wonderful selection choice; which is probably a significant reason why clientele regularly attend from all states of Australia.

What makes Allendale so successful is their ‘no compromise’ policy on quality when selecting breeding stock. The Days fully appreciate that to produce consistent lines of high quality stock for the commercial industry; you need to use the best available breeding stock at the stud end of the industry. Having the ingredients, it is then up to their skill as studmasters to get the genetic match ups right. This is an area that they have clearly excelled in. With such a large breeding program and to maintain genetic diversity, in any one year there are many sires of note in each stud.

The Allendale White Suffolk stud has received the benefit of major genetic investments in recent years. Detpa Grove ‘Fair Dinkum’, purchased for a then world record $35,000 in 2004, has had a major impact. Many sons are already in stud and commercial use, selling to a high of $10,000 at Adelaide in 2005.

The purchase of Anden 257/04 for $25,000 in 2005 was another big commitment and investment aimed at securing their future quality output in the breed. He has been very successful with his first progeny are a feature of this year’s White Suffolk offerings, including a star lot on offer at Adelaide. Mount Ronan 56 is an elite performance sire that has also had a positive impact, with his top son being the stud’s other Adelaide sale ram

It is not just purchased sires that are creating interest at Allendale though, for the breeding strength of homebred Allendale sires is almost legendary. In the White Suffolks, Allendale Z04123 is a sire whose first progeny will also be offered this year. A ram of extreme length, he was sold for $11,750 at the 2005 sale to the Osborne family, with Allendale retaining semen use in the ram. A 224/05 (by And 83) is another terrific homebred sire with some particularly good sons on offer.

This year’s Poll Dorset offering again features progeny from a whole group of extremely successful sires including Valma Y52; Kurralea 404/02 (Adelaide Royal Supreme ram 2003); plus homebred sire Allendale 227/03 (by the extreme performance sire Hillcroft Farms 350) being the most prominent of these.
Several purchased and young homebred sires also feature with their first progeny, including A 267/04 (by Ad 465/01) who won the performance class at 3 major shows.

A452/04 (by A116/03) is a huge growth ram, while Rannoch 288/04 (purchased for $6,500) and Jolma 162/05 are the dominant new sires with many sons featuring in the top ends of the sale offerings. The consistent high quality rams this group of sires is breeding at Allendale is to be admired and well worth serious inspection by stud and commercial breeders alike.

In the Suffolk offering, New Zealand sires Coleford 429/00 and Dorie A62/03 in particular have made a big impact at Allendale; with last year’s offering one of the stud’s very best. This year’s offering will again be dominated by their influence with a very good quality team of stud and flock rams available for competition. The Suffolk offering will also feature some impressive homebred bloodlines.

Allendale will have teams from all 3 breeds at this year’s Hamilton Sheepvention and the Adelaide and Melbourne Royal Shows. They will also offer 2 top White Suffolk rams at the Adelaide Royal Elite Sheep Sale, while 2 top Poll Dorsets will be offered at the Melbourne Royal Show Sale.

All other sale stock will be on offer at their annual sale. Graham, Lachlan and Alastair are willing to discuss the merits of their various sire lines or individual sheep with any prospective purchasers at anytime.