Centre Plus in the AMS
- 1981 ~ AMS ~ Centre Plus Ram Breeding Group
- The CENTRE PLUS Breeding Program began as a simple Open Nucleus, in the AMS three tiered Group Breeding Scheme.
- The CENTRE PLUS Nucleus was one of 100 middle tier Flocks that had contributing flocks below it, and a Central Nucleus Flock above it.
- From the Central Nucleus flock the best animals were selected on their own performance measurement and made available through AI to the middle and bottom tiers.
- The CENTRE PLUS Nucleus and Contributor flocks made major use of these elite animals for the eight years of involvement with the AMS.
- The AMS had an identical Breeding Objective to CENTRE PLUS and it is on the AMS Genetic Base that CENTRE PLUS is founded.
- A maximum profit All Purpose Merino.
That strange name !
When members of this new group decided they needed a name for the group, that was not a town or property, it was decided all members would return to the next meeting with a list possibilities.
At the next meeting all members accept one came up with blank ideas. John Blowes all excited said he had come up with what he thought was brilliant name while in his tractor thinking time. CENTRE for centre of the state, and PLUS for more of everything including dollars. Much to John’s surprise, his suggestion met with a barrage of derogatory comments, so it was decided members would have another go at thinking up a proper stud type name by the next meeting.
The next meeting brought a total blank from everybody once again. It was not till one member said I can’t stand the name Centre Plus, but I can’t get it off my mind. This was met with a chorus of me too’s. At the time ‘which bank’ the Commonwealth Bank had just announced its new logo, to a chorus of criticism. Their response was that it did not matter whether people liked it or not but whether it created a point of difference and people could remember it.
So the name Centre Plus came into being as it covered both the above requirements.
Pam Blowes won the competition for a Centre Plus logo. This one members did like.
The CENTRE PLUS group evolved through 8 years of AMS Breeding (1981 – 1988) where measured performance selection of young sheep over huge populations was shown to work.
Extensive use of SID AI using elite rams, saw an exciting new type of sheep evolve, improving many qualities we never thought possible. Body Weight, Do-ability, Conception, Birth-ease, Milking and Rearing ability, showed dramatic improvement over this period.
Mostly poll rams have been used since the beginning of the group, although original base ewes in 1981-2 were horned. Members being the intelligent people they are, always said when setting the breeding objective they wanted the best rams on index regardless of whether polled or horned, but when it came to pick up an allocation of rams they would put back horns and take a lower ranked polls. An exercise in voting with their feet.
In 1986 CENTRE PLUS became one of the first Groups in Australia to adopt Micron Testing of ewes in its Nucleus and commercial flocks. This allowed selection pressure on reduced micron in both the ewes and the rams. A major contributor to our being able to reduce Fibre Diameter by 3 micron between 1981 and 1996. (over a 15 year period, 22.5 mic to 19.5 mic )
Was Merinotech a spin-off, and what happened to the rest of the organisation, and when?