Genetic Solutions for Food and Fibre
- 0497 762 977
The first Nivisons migrated from the Nith Valley, Dumfriesshire, Scotland to Sydney, Australia in 1839. They leased land near Murrurundi (Hunter Valley, New South Wales) for 2/3 years before moving to the Walcha district. Towser Nivison took up his portion of Ohio (YALGOO) in 1919. Since then Jock Nivison AM and Grant have managed Yalgoo. Grant’s son Jock is the current custodian.
Yalgoo consists of 3,300 hectares of loamy pipe clay soils with some areas of basalt. The property has a long fertiliser history with improved pastures first introduced in the 1950s.
The New England growing season is characterised by summer dominant rainfall, with a 750 ml average at Yalgoo. Because of a relatively high altitude (1,133 meters), summer temperatures rarely exceed 35ºC and winter temperatures are often sub-zero.
There is high-pasture growth in spring and summer and little growth during winter with the majority of pastures experiencing an extended period of dormancy with severe frosts that can go from March to October. Dry periods are generally in March/April and August/September.
Our pasture renovation program is 2 yrs of Italian Ryegrass (Warrior bred at Gatton) followed by permanent pasture comprising Tall Fescue (Quantum max. summer growth), Prairie grass (winter growth) as well as Astrid red clover and Trophy white clover. Lime is applied pre-sowing.
We also irrigate 20 ha of Turnip/Rye grass and 60 ha of Plantain/Chicory/ Clover. Fertilising is strategic with annual manure applications to recently renovated pasture. Weed control is integrated using grazing and chemical application.
Stock are rotational grazed at a winter stocking rate of 12-14 DSE/ha. Stud ewes and cows receive no preferential treatment over their commercial peers. Pastures are preferably grazed to 400 kg DM/ha to ensure ground cover is upwards of 90% year round.
Supplementary feeding is rarely implemented, with stocking rate our primary seasonal relief tool.
“For more than 25 years we have been buying Yalgoo rams for our superfine merino flock because they are well grown, plain bodied sheep that produce plenty of bright, stylish wool. Their genetics have performed very well for us in local wether trials, and most importantly, in the wool auction room. We also appreciate that the stud is at the forefront of performance recording and testing heritability of commercial traits such as worm resistance.”
“We have been using Yalgoo Rams for the last 60 years. They are large framed sheep with an abundance of superfine wool. Yalgoo sheep will not let you down. They are as good as you will find”
“We have been increasing whole farm net profits by reducing micron, increasing clean fleece weights per hectare and complimented recently with excellent lamb mutton prices. This has come about by various management strategies, the key one being genetics. We have sourced pure Yalgoo genetics for sixteen years for this very reason and are very happy to continue to do so.”