History
The Karori flock began in 1928 with rams and ewes purchased from Emu Creek in Walcha. During the 1930’s, sheep were purchased from Mirani and their rams were used until 1970 when Shalimar rams were introduced. Karori began breeding its own rams in the early 1980’s using Shalimar sires. At this time, Karori concentrated on purchasing high performance, objectively measured rams with high clean weights and fine crimp.
In 1986 we began single sire joining and progeny testing, using a variety of genetics, and began using Artificial Insemination in 1990. Progeny groups were monitored for constitution, wool production and wool quality and any rams or progeny performing below our flock average were not retained. The Karori stud was registered in 1995, at which time, we decided to concentrate more on breeding a large framed plain bodied sheep which produced deep crimping,lustrous, soft, white wools.
Climate
Karori is situated on the eastern fall of the Great Dividing Range in the south of the New England region. At an altitude of 950-1200metres above sea level, the winter temperature is cool to cold with heavy frosts and occasional snow falls and the summer temperature is temperate. Karori has an annual average rainfall of 950mm.(ranging from 575mm to 1435mm) Approximately 50% of this rainfall occurs from December-March, often falling as heavy mist so, over the summer period, the sheep can be wet for weeks at a time. Also, rain is recorded, on average for about 120 days of the year.As a result, our sheep have been bred to withstand these wet conditions and are highly resistant to fleece rot.
Soil & Pastures
The soil on Karori ranges from a trap soil with a heavy clay base to a light shaley trap with some red loamy soils on the hills. The country has been regularly supered since the mid 1950’s and there is an on-going programme of pasture improvement. Karori runs approximately 10-12DSE’s per hectare.