We farm our Coopworths across 700ha of breeding and finishing country near Taumarunui, in conditions that don't let genetics hide: cool winters, hot, humid summers and autumns, and real pressure from facial eczema, internal parasites and flystrike.

We're focused on physically robust, disease-tolerant sheep that are fit for our environment, requiring minimal input and handling.

Romani Coopworth are both WormFEC Gold and FEGold certified.

Ewes are lambed at high paddock stocking rates, often 30 to 50 ewes /ha, and are disrupted daily as newborn lambs are tagged.

Once weaned, ram lambs are left undrenched for 8 to 10 weeks before being individually FEC tested. They are then left undrenched for a further 2 to 3 months. Through all this they are fed just enough to keep them going. The idea is to put maximum pressure on them to sort out the weak from the strong.

Ewe lambs are fed better to grow them sufficiently for hogget lambing, but the use of drench is still minimised. They are all left undagged to ensure accurate dag score, and undipped to ensure maximum pressure from flystrike.

We muscle scan all the ram lambs in the autumn to assess meat yield and also measure intramuscular fat to ensure that we preserve the great eating quality that NZ lamb is famous for.

The Coopworth lambs are shorn around weaning time and again in the winter, with fleece weight taken from the winter shearing.

Data is collected on all lambs, even the culls.

Ewes are run with the commercial flock all year except at tupping and lambing.

Click the link below to see the Genetic Trend Graphs for the Romani Coopworth flock.