Testimonials

“In July, I scanned the Kerin Poll commercial and stud ewe flock, including maidens, for a 97.8%

scanning.

"I have scanned 830,000 ewes across the NSW Central West over the past four years, of all sheep breeds and ages.

"I have never had a single age group scan this well let alone an entire flock,”

Tony Walsh, Tony Walsh Sheep and Cattle Pregnancy Scanning, Narromine

“A high proportion of shearers travel widely for work to maintain and increase their income, or to gain experience and improve their skills. These shearers are always looking for consistent runs of good shearing, free-combing sheep, and they avoid areas of tough, slow-shearing sheep. Due to past experience or word of mouth, shearers are unlikely to return or even consider going to areas that are of little benefit to them, as generally good shearing sheep pay the same as tough slow shearing sheep. Contractors are acutely aware of the shearing quality of the sheep in their runs and the continuity of work to attract and retain shearers and shed hands who will return every year.

Kerin Polls are a good example of the modern type of Merino that tick the boxes for attracting and holding good quality shearers and shed staff. Kerin Polls are plain-bodied with smooth, supple skins, making them easier shearing sheep. Due to the nature of the sheep and the ease of shearing, shearers are able to improve their tallies - up to as many as 10 sheep a run - therefore increasing their incomes (by approx. $100 a day) and enhancing their skills. It is not only the shearers that gain from the plain-bodied sheep. Shedhands and woolclassers also benefit as the fleeces are easier and faster to handle on the wool table, due to less fribs, skin pieces and skirting.

Kerin Poll sheep cut the same fleece weight as heavy-skinned sheep, producing bright, soft handling white wool with no fleece rot - regardless of how wet the year is. This was particularly noticeable after the recent exceptionally wet summer season.

With many job options available to young people, they need every encouragement to enter and stay in the shearing industry. This type of sheep and good working conditions make Nigel and Kate Kerin’s a soughtafter shed."

Ralph Blue, Principal, Blue Shearing Services, Yeoval

“Without doubt Nigel Kerin is one of the most progressive and enthusiastic Merino producers in
the country today.

During a time when Merino growers were turning their back on the wool industry, Nigel has grown and prospered because of his commitment, willingness to embrace change, and enthusiasm to the Merino breed. I have been purchasing rams bred by the Kerins for almost 10 years and have benefited from their influence.

"Their sheep are well-structured, plain-bodied with soft white 20-micron wool. Fertility and mothering ability is an area they have concentrated on and ram clients will benefit from this emphasis. This year we have had good summer and autumn rain and subsequent floods. None of our grown sheep have had any chemical for fly protection for the past three seasons and this year it was no different. At a time when the sheep and wool industry is at its best in years, it is vital to maximise your breeding direction and continue to improve for the future.

"My annual shearing at Tilpa was in July and my ewe hoggets cut upwards of 6kg with next to no colour in the wool - and they looked a picture off the board. In a year of high rainfall and long grass, the benefit of having big, plain-bodied ewes was evident in the wool bin and in the count-out yards. A bought mob of ewes with big fronts produced a lot more seedy, coloured wool, and the shearers went back 15 a run. These ewes cut the same amount of wool as the big, plain-bodied Kerin ewes. It wasn’t until I saw the two mobs shorn - one after the other – that I realised the full benefits of the genetic improvement in my own flock."

Wool broker and grazier, Don Macdonald, Don Macdonald and Company Woolbrokers, Dubbo

"We purchased rams at the inaugural Kerin Poll On-Property Ram Sale and are extremely happy with the resulting offspring. We only buy Poll Merinos, for their ease of management, and safety for the operators and the rams themselves. So, we want true polls - without horns or scurs.

"As wool producers we are always looking to increase our wool cut but this must be in conjunction with a low maintenance body. The plain-bodied Kerin Poll rams produce this frames as well as high fertility in our ewes, to increase lambing percentages. The large frame and long bodies will ensure surplus sheep returns are maximised.

Knowing Nigel and his management style gives us confidence that the breeding will produces consistency in the next generation, and not throw back to shortcuts or a blowout in micron."

Grazier, Tony Gilmour, "Happy Valley", Gilgandra

“We bought 430 ’06-drop Merino ewes from Nigel and Kate in December 2009, right before a wet summer. We were quite impressed by how well they handled the moisture despite not having any chemical treatment. I have never seen sheep so fly resistant, and I’ve been in sheep for over 20 years. Nigel, in our view, is where we’d like our sheep to be and hopefully we can fast-track our transition with the help of Nigel’s genetics.

“We joined the ewes but didn’t scan them because we knew they were good breeders, and we marked 141% of lambs from them. We were very impressed with that when our own were only going 110- 115%. To go 141% unscanned, we thought was very good.

“I’ve had a fair bit to do with Merinos ever since I was a kid and I’ve had a lot to do with blowflies in sheep. Up until fairly recently I thought it was impossible to breed Merinos that didn’t get flies whereas now I believe you can, and I’ve had it proven to me. You don’t have to live with blowflies if you’ve got Merinos.

"To me that means a lot less work, less worry, less cost, and more profit for less work. There’s nothing worse than bringing in a mob of sheep and seeing that 5% of them have got flies across the shoulders or tail. It just doesn’t happen now and it makes life so much better to have Merinos.”

Grazier, Richard Stendell, “Ben Avon”, Brewarrina

“I have been involved with marketing the Kerin family sheep for approximately 10 years. Over this time we have sold prime lambs over the hook and through the saleyards, we have sold store breeders to restockers, and surplus or cast-for-age sheep to processors. The results achieved speak for themselves, with repeat buyers lining up for all the Kerin-bred sheep that come on to the market. In the prime Merino lambs produced, we see yields of 48% and skin values at the top of the spectrum. In the ewes that are sold to restockers, lambings of over 150% are commonplace with wool cuts exceeding all expectations. All in all, for dollars returned per head and per hectare, the Kerin family flock is at the top of the tree!”

Livestock agent, Tim Wiggins, Christie and Hood, Dubbo

“My brother Brett, parents, Peter and Margaret, and I run a number of grazing properties, with the core of the business being Merino breeding and wool production. After purchasing a new property and flock, we wanted to improve the flock and went to Kerin Poll to achieve our goals.

The Kerin Poll rams showed structural soundness, great growth for age, evenness as a group, with bright long wools and evenness of wool type. I feel these rams are perfect for the “Mount Top” flock to improve frame, brighten wool type, and free up the skins.”

Grazier, Murray Wykes, “Mount Top”, Eucareena

“My first introduction to Nigel was through further education, which - for those of you that don’t know him - makes him strive for excellence and to learn something new every day. Throughout that time a different understanding of sheep breeding came to the fore. Micron, fleece weights, etc, were all part of it but Nigel’s stance on Merino ewe fertility struck a real chord. When I saw for myself his Merino ewe lambs having lambs without compromise for growth, the seed was sown. A look over the Kerins’ stud ewes and I was sold.

"A big question in my mind was: ‘can I bring a massive western sheep back into the high rainfall country?' We bought our first ram from Nigel three years ago. Having had two lambings before Kerin Poll’s first sale, I have the pleasure of saying that they have held their white wool colour, and the style has actually become better, which is a real win. The real visual difference was in the size of the offspring. The physical presence and growth of the lambs by the ram bought in 2008 is outstanding. This led us to Kerin Poll’s first ram sale in 2010 where we bought three rams that averaged over 100kg, for a $3500 average.

With the sheep market performing as it has been, we believe the sky is the limit for the new Merino sheep the Kerins are breeding. Thanks for everything Nigel.”

Grazier, Norm McCormack, Crookwell

“Nigel and Kate’s sheep are very, very good commercial sheep and their wool has gone ahead in leaps and bounds in the past few years, without compromising the structure of the sheep or their fertility. I’ve conducted the Kerin’s lamb marking, dipping and mulesing – when they used to mules – for about a decade and these sheep are some of the best sheep I work with for consistency and very high lambing percentages. The Kerin’s sheep achieve such high levels year in and year out, even through tough seasons.”

Philip King, King’s Livestock Services, Cumnock

"We bought 400 ’05-drop Merino ewes from Kerin Agriculture in May, 2009. The late February-shorn ewes had been scanned in lamb at 164% to the Kerin’s rams, off the back of a 35-day joining period preceded by two weeks with teasers. What follows are some of the key results through to mid-June, 2010. Both of us are newcomers to owning and managing livestock, having assumed direct management of our place in early 2007. We apply planned holistic grazing, do not substitute feed, we gave the ewes access to a mix of magnesium, calcium and salt during lambing, we use low stress stock handling techniques, have low fertility soils with zero inputs, and our pastures are a mix of native grasses and naturally regenerated ex-cropping land. Conditions during Spring 2009 were harsh and we only intervened with the sheep when absolutely necessary. We took no action in reducing fox numbers before or during lambing."

"The Kerin ewes finished lambing on September 16 and lambs were marked and vaccinated on October 6. Lambing percentage was 140% and the long-term sheep owners who helped out on the day were all in shock, commenting that they had never seen results of this magnitude from Merinos. The lambs were weaned on February 7, 2010, at 130%, calculated off the original ewe numbers. We sold our weaner wether lambs at Forbes on June 15 and were very pleased with the price. Our selling agent commented: “Keep doing what you are doing. The sheep type is just what the market is looking for.”
The high fertility, fecundity and performance capability of the ewes speaks volumes.

Graziers, Phillip and Jan Diprose, “Ochre Arch”, Grenfell - http://ochrearchives.blogspot.com

“I have been classing Nigel and Kate Kerin’s wool for the past three years and I have never
experienced any fleece ro

t or canary yellow in their wool. Over that time they have had some of their wettest seasons. I came across large amounts of green, water-damaged wool in many of the sheds that I classed in across Central West NSW over the past 12 months.

“The Kerin Poll clip always exhibits high tensile strength, it is very bright and white, and is very soft to touch, with good style. This year, the average staple length with eight months growth was 90mm.”

Trish Bateman, Kerin Poll Wool Classer, Blue Shearing Services