From the 23rd to the 30th of June on invitation of National Association of Sheep Breeders Australian sheep breeder, owner of the farms “Roseville Park” and “Coddington Uardry” Graham Coddington with his wife Susan visited Stavropol region and Karachay and Cherkessk Republic. Graham Coddington is famous in Australia as a founder of new (meat-wool) direction in Merino sheep breeding. Many years ago in 1999 he was the first who brought embryos of Dohne Merinos from South Africa. And since that time the new stage of development of Australian sheep breeding based on producing of fine and super-fine wool (up to 23 microns) and excellent lamb began. Exactly from “Roseville Park” 31 stud rams in the type of Dohne merino were brought in our country in 2004 and 2007. Another 23 rams were from the farm “Uardry”. And in 2011 Graham Coddington bought the biggest part of the rams of this farm, its brand and founded on its base new stud farm “Coddington Uardry”. The main aim of Mr. Coddington’s visit was to examine the results of the work with animals of new formation brought from Australia. He also gave a master class on animal evaluation, demonstrated the main differential characteristics of dual purpose sheep and helped in distribution of sheep in the type of Dohne Merinos in Russia.
The staff members of the National Association of Sheep Breeders headed by the Director General Mikhail Egorov organized a journey on 6 leading sheep breeding farms of Stavropol region (Agricultural production cooperative “Stud farm Vtoraya Pyatiletka”, Agricultural production cooperative Kolhoz-stud farm “Rossiya”, Kolhoz-stud farm “Manych”, Kolhoz “Rodina”, Agricultural production cooperative kolhoz-stud farm “Put’ Lenina”, Agricultural production cooperative kolhoz-stud farm named by Lenin) where specialists have been working on creating of the group of animals in the type of meat merino. The delegation consisted also of the Director of the Russian Science and Research Institution of Sheep and Goats Breeding Marina Selionova, Doctor of Biological Sciences, specialists of the Institution Nina Yefimova and Svetlana Shumajenko; from NASB there were the head of technology and selection department Alexander Surov, Doctor of Science in Agriculture, the head of the marketing department, Vasily Serdyukov, Master of Agriculture, the head of international cooperation department Tanya Zubkova. In all the farms the delegation visited the specialists of the farms (shepherds, main livestock specialists, heads of the farms) took part in communication and discussion. Mr. Coddington also demonstrated all the benefits and defects of the Russian sheep in the type of meat merino to the specialists of 6 farms. This meeting was organized on the base of selection-genetic center “Manych” (Apanasenkovsky District). During the master class of Australian expert all the participants got information about selection, management, feeding, reproduction etc. of the sheep in the type of meat merino. Graham Coddington gave good mark to the animals. He emphasized the animals of the stud farm “Manych”. He thanked the head of this farm Sergey Fisenko and the main livestock specialist Sergey Cheerva for their work in the chosen direction. Moreover Graham and Susan Coddington visited wool-processing enterprise “Kvest-A” in Cherkessk (Karachay and Cherkessk Republic), Science and research institution of sheep and goats breeding, Stavropol agricultural university and the main office of NASB. During the visit to “Kvest-A” the head of this enterprise Marat Khalkechev demonstrated to the Australian guests all the stages of work activity (from acceptance of wool to the end products). The participants of the meeting also discussed the questions of bilateral cooperation between wool-processing enterprise and Australian wool producers. Director of Science and Research Institution of Sheep and Goats Breeding showed the main projects of native scientists in the sphere of sheep breeding. The chiefs of the laboratories of morphology and immunogenetics put up their work. Moreover there was organized a meeting where the participants discussed the question of Dohne merinos’ development in different edaphic-climatic zones of Australia. Later Marina Selionova showed to the quests the research station where goats of Saanen breed and sheep of meat-wool direction are hold. During the visit to Stavropol agricultural university the guests saw milk and meat processing, forage testing laboratories. The members of the University also demonstrated wool-testing instrument OFDA-2000, which defines the fineness of wool of the given sample during a minute. Graham and Susan Coddington also visited office of NASB. Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Stavropol region Galina Bobryshova and head of the livestock, fishery department and breeding works Anatoly Mushtatov were invited to the meeting. Mr. Coddington shared his emotions and impression after his journey and visit of the farms where he saw the animals and work of breeders. (All the photos you can find in the section “Gallery”)
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