It was great to see so many breeders at our recent Ram Hogget day/ Sire Service Scheme/ and AGM held at Margaret and Richard Browns property in March. It’s a great tribute to the Suffolk group to look at how far we have come in the 5 years the trial has been running with the quality of the sheep improving every year. We are now moving into a new phase to promote this quality and judging by the response for the marketing plan from the AGM and send backs this is what our members want. The opportunity for all members is there to participate in this newspaper promotion along with the website and the proposed ram sale in December.

A big thank you to the retiring committee members Don Robinson and Don Hunn for their countless years of work with the group and we welcome Basil Simpson and Ed Sherriff on to the committee.

Stewart Morton

At our recent AGM it was decided to increase the annual subscription from $15.to $25 (GST exl). It has been necessary to make this increase to enable the club to cover the rising costs of newsletters and club events. Please find attached an invoice for your subs, which are due for payment by the end of May.

Due to the great response from breeders the Suffolk groups advertising will start in August and go through to January in the Country-Wide. Each breeder who contributes $150 (+GST) will have their name, stud name and contact details listed, broken down into regions.

We are here to be seen in the market place and show that our terminal rams are the best around.

We are offering a once only price of $30 to be part of the Central Suffolk website, which will be advertised in newspapers regularly leading up to and including ram selling. All that is required is for you to write down on a piece of paper what you would like to put in the website and send this to Andy Sims with a couple of photographs if you have them (he even has a outline of what you can put in if want).

Andy Sims R D 2 Masterton -063725700 – Email adsims@contact.net.nz

This is a world class website – see for yourself www.suffolksheep.org.nz

Over the years our committee has toyed with the idea of holding a Flock Ram Fair.

The purpose of the sale is to attract clients who are currently buying rams other than Suffolk’s, by putting on offer a line of approximately 75-100 top flock rams. The committee considers that a sale of this kind is timely because the experience of last year’s ram selling season shows us that there is currently an oversupply of rams in New Zealand and therefore, we have to be more pro-active in putting our sheep in front of potential ram buyers. It is proposed that the sale be held at the Feilding sale yards early in December before the annual Stud Ram Fair.

Proposed entry details are:

• Each breeder would be invited to put up to 4 rams in sale
• Rams to be inspected prior to sale to ensure they are of a consistent high quality
• Rams to be sold singly, in pairs and in threes.

As said above, we are considering this idea and would like feedback on whether you would be interested in supporting a sale of this nature. Please let us know by filling in the form below.

October- Suffolk School for new breeders. The purpose of the school will be to

learn the finer points of what a Suffolk should look like, and also

pointers for purchasing and selling Suffolk rams

We would value your input on the following important matters so please complete and return this section to :

J Cowper
R D 11
Wanganui

By the end of May