Stud breeding has always been part of Emma Pettigrew’s life.
Finding the winners Emma Pettigrew enjoys working out what’s best in her new role at Wairarapa stud farm Wairere, Rebecca Greaves writes. Photos: Brad Hanson.
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nalysing data to find the winners, whether it’s selecting sires or identifying trends, appeals to Emma Pettigrew’s competitive side. She’s relishing her new role as research and development manager at Wairarapa sheep stud, Wairere, where she has been working since October last year. Her role is primarily data analysis and administration, but she can be called on to help out on farm at busy times, which suits her just fine. Stud breeding has always been part of life for Emma, 28, who grew up on farms in the Pohangina Valley and Kimbolton, in the Manawatu. “My parents were stud farmers, both sheep and cattle. They’re now retired, but had Te Ohu Stud, so I grew up with stud stock.” With 2500 Wairere rams (including two-
tooths and ram lambs) sold annually, her knowledge of stud stock certainly comes in handy. She worked hard at selling time last year to make it easier for clients to have access to information on just those rams being presented in their pick, rather than having to wade through the information for all sale stock. During docking she’s often out and about capturing DNA parentage at those crossbred flocks that are run off-farm, and at weaning she can be found as extra casual labour. Summer is her time to really crunch the numbers. With a diverse range of breeding objectives, she’s looking for different traits in different flocks, be it analysing sire lines in the hogget breeding programme, looking at meat traits in a terminal flock or focusing on facial eczema tolerance in the FE flock. Emma didn’t know what she wanted to do when she left school, but she knew she wasn’t cut out for day-to-day farm work,
Country-Wide
October 2021
