GENETICS
Obituary
A PIONEER OF NZ’S SHEEP INDUSTRY BY: SANDRA TAYLOR
T
he New Zealand sheep industry lost a true pioneer with the death of Holmes Warren on March 7 this year. He was 92. The third generation of the Warren family to farm Turanganui, one of NZ’s oldest and largest sheep studs, Holmes’ early focus on fertility and productive traits contributed to development of the modern Romney, a breed that has helped lift the productivity of the NZ sheep flock. Holmes was a founding member of the Wairarapa Romney Improvement Group, a group of breeders who banded together in the 1970s to improve the breed and continue to work together for the betterment of the breed and ultimately the performance of commercial flocks. It was a neighbouring sheep stud, where Holmes worked after leaving school at the age of 17, (after the death of his father) that gave him insight into what ewes were capable of producing given the right mix of genetics and management. This stud was lambing an unheard-of 130%
SHEEP DIPPING
and returning to Turanganui in 1948 aged just 19, Holmes could see the potential in their ewes which at that time were lambing 105%. Holmes' son Mike Warren says this early focus on fertility meant once that fertility was in place, everything else was achievable because selection pressure was there. Holmes began keeping production records back in the 1950s and these records enabled him to identify and cull poorer-performing animals. When Holmes first returned to Turanganui the farm was running 1300 ewes of which 700 were studs. He gradually got rid of the commercial ewes and increased the size of the stud flock as the size of the farm increased. Keeping individual records on some 1600 ewes was a gargantuan task before the advent of computers and this job kept the tractor driver’s wife Meg Tilsley employed for about 900 hours a year. Meg had an outstanding mind for numbers, often doing major calculations before the days of breeding values.
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October 2021
