Ivydowns holds claim to fame

MEENIYAN’S Ivy Downs Stud was established in 1999 by Dave and Neralie Reynolds and is currently the largest Southdown sheep stud in Australia and New Zealand.
Sheep and the stud really is a family concern, with children Mark, Belinda and Heidi all involved in the business.
“We started with Southdowns and we have now branched out into white Suffolk and Suffolk and our daughter also runs poll Dorsets,” Dave said.
“We primarily breed stud stock for other breeders. We currently have our bloodlines in eight different countries, which is unheard of really.
“More than half of the lambs we have hitting the ground at the moment are already sold.”
Ivy Downs is the most awarded Southdown stud in Australia. Its rams have been awarded champion Southdown 16 consecutive times at royal shows, including Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Canberra.
“We have bloodlines nobody else has and our genetic base is superior to most other breeders. People come to us to expand their genetic base,” Dave said.
“We scan for eye muscle, we pregnancy scan and we are also the only Southdown stud to run a juvenile in vitro embryo transfer (JIVET) program.”
The JIVET program essentially puts Ivy Downs’ breeding program one year ahead.
“We also AI using our own bloodlines and we also buy in a lot of semen from overseas,” Dave said.
“A couple of years ago, we sold a ram to Uruguay which is now the sire of the most Southdowns there and in Paraguay.
“Even though we export, we are more attuned to the local market. Our bread and butter market is Victoria which means we get to know the people who buy our rams.
“A lot of our clients are repeat buyers. Essentially, our market is the local market but we are expanding all the time.
“Ivy Downs is leading the Southdown market because of sheep selection and scientific research.”
Over three properties throughout Gippsland, Ivy Downs runs around 500 stud ewes across four breeds of sheep on 180 acres.
“People like our sheep because of ease of lambing and their ability to rapidly mature from a prime lamb point of view,” Dave said.
In lambing season they have somebody in the paddock every four hours, which Dave said is to make sure they know exactly which ewe produces which lamb so they can accurately verify bloodlines.
“We have 198 per cent lambing every year, because we breed in the trait of durability. Southdowns are a British breed so they are well suited to South Gippsland,” he said.
“It is a good geographic area for them and they seem to thrive in any conditions. All of our lambs are paddock reared, so they are bred with the trait of durability, strength and the ability to forage.”
The Reynolds originally chose Southdowns because they felt they were a sheep they could improve upon.
“We didn’t think they were of a high standard when we first began so we bred up our stock to where we wanted to be and through AI improved out genetic base,” he said.
“We had a good terminal sire for the South Gippsland prime lamb market, and it has rewarded us. Our sales are unheard of.”
Dave said Southdowns are a well muscled sheep that survive on minimal inputs and kill out very well.
“We are really at the size we want to be now and we are satisfied we can provide our clientele with quality rather than quantity,” he said.
“If the moment came that our quality ever dropped off, we would feel the repercussions of that straight away.”

Family business: Dave and Neralie Reynolds established Ivy Downs Stud in Meeniyan in 1999 and it is now the biggest Southdown stud in Australia.

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Posted by Sarah Vella on Sep 11 2013. Filed under Rural News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry