It is a big year for Janmac. Grant and Bryce Hausler and families of Janmac Poll Dorsets and White Suffolk studs, Goroke will celebrate their family’s 40th year of Poll Dorset breeding at their 2019 sale.
While they have been selling large and even drafts of rams to clients in western Victoria and the south east of South Australia over those 40 years, it is their achievements in the past few years that have come under much wider notice.
They again had another near-total clearance, selling 187 rams at their annual sale last October, a result that verifies the strong competition from commercial breeders seeking rams that are certainly performing and producing increased profit margins in their paddocks.
With bodyweights well over 100kg and up to the mid-130kg, they achieved an overall average of $1367, while two Poll Dorset rams made the $4400 equal top price, including the ram with the highest eye muscle depth scan of 50mm.
First-time buyers Ian and Jill Fennell, Wongabeena stud, Penola, bought both sale toppers.
Sale agents explain Janmac’s growing popularity in simple terms: “They produce durable rams with the genetic potential to turn grass into top-end dollars.”
The increased demand for their rams has been built around the quality they have been producing.
Janmac has always strived for excellence with strict selection criteria for balance, structure, conformation, fertility and performance, especially growth rate and muscling.
These traits will be clearly evident in this year’s offering of around 200 Poll Dorset and White Suffolk rams on Wednesday, October 2, on-property at Goroke.
It is Janmac’s willingness to invest in the right genetics to achieve their objective that makes the difference.
A substantial lift was achieved in their Poll Dorset flock when Janmac combined with the Rowett family in SA to purchase Kurralea 110011 in 2012 for a then-Poll Dorset breed record price of $28,000.
Rather than rely on that one lift, as significant as it was, they have continued to seek out the best genetics they can find to match their breeding objectives, and then have been prepared to commit to the necessary investment.
They have followed up with top purchases across both breeds to build on their objective to quietly achieve improvement towards excellence.
Top rams were purchased from Newbold, Kentish Downs, Kurralea, before adding two very significant Poll Dorset purchases last year.
Kurralea 160435, the Adelaide reserve champion ram, was purchased for $12,000, while they also took a share in Kurralea 160234, the Melbourne reserve senior champion purchased by Ulandi Park for $15,000.
The first progeny from both these rams will be on offer this year.
In 2018 they added a further four outstanding sires, topped by Ulandi Park 170151 in conjunction with Kurralea for $17,000.
They also paid $5000 for another top Kentish Downs ram, KD1780161, then followed up with a swag of ewes from the Kentish Downs dispersal earlier this year.
Grant and Bryce Hausler apply the same breeding principles to their more recent and smaller White Suffolk stud, catering for lamb producers who favour this breeding option.
The highly-credentialed Wingamin bloodlines feature strongly in the foundation of this stud, while they followed up with the significant purchase of Anden 150022Tw in 2016 for $8000.
This ram had a Lambplan Carcase Plus index of 219.95 and was a son of the then-record $36,000 Anden ram that sold to WA the previous year.
The ram bred exceptionally well for Anden when used as a ram lamb, with eight stud ram sons selling in Anden’s 2017 sale, twice topping at $10,000.
The Hauslers are delighted with the quality lift this infusion has made, with Janmac’s first progeny sold last year. Kurralea White Suffolk genetics have also been added to further boost the quality on offer in their White Suffolk offering.
Courtesy of Bryce Eishold, The Land
