Ramming it home

Tim and Sue Anderson have run Mt Guardian Perendales on their farm at Conway Flat in North Canterbury since the mid '60s - and their son Woody is keen to take over the stud when his parents retire.

Their philosophy is to breed a low-input sheep that will produce efficiently on all types of country.

'They're designed for our type of country; hard hill country, but they will also produce under good country and they're lovely to handle. Some people say they're a bit wild, but if you handle them correctly and don't use too many Huntaways they're a pleasure!" he says proudly.

The Andersons run about 4000 sheep and sell between 500 and 600 rams every year.

The stud was established by Tim's father Derek, who kept handwritten diaries containing performance data on every Perendale ram.

Now all the data goes into a software programme managed by Tim and Sue's son Woody.

"I just want to carry on a similar role to what my father's been doing and continue to develop a good conformation sheep with a good performance background that's hopefully going to bring more revenue onto our client's properties," Woody says.