UPDATE
Jim and Sue remain at Stonehenge 'holding the fort' while their sons continue their respective rugby careers. Charles plays for Canterbury and lives with his partner Belinda - an integral member of the World Netball Champion Silver FernsTeam - in Christchurch.

Selected for the All Black tour to the Northern Hemisphere in late 2002, Andrew played his debut match against England. On his return home he underwent an operation to his shoulder which meant he missed the Super 12 competition. He then played briefly for his local club amid some controversy, before returning to New Plymouth to play another season for Taranaki in the NPC competition.

There has never been any question that Andrew's long term future was going to be in farming and he has recently purchased his grandfather's property "Hot Friday" at Patearoa. This will be run in conjunction with the Stonehenge operation until he decides to call it quits in the professional rugby scene.

NEW ARRIVAL
Continuing the policy of introducing fresh blood and genetics to the Stonehenge stud a new ram, appropriately named 'number 2' , has recently been purchased from the Merryville Stud in Australia. We look forward to the new offspring with interest.

PLAYED HOST
Stonehenge has hosted two events of late, the Cavalcade and an industry information day.

Earlier in the year, a trail of the annual Cavalcade run by the Otago Goldfields Heritage Trust began from Stonehenge, before heading over the Lammermoors and Coal Creek to eventually arrive in Waikaia, Southland. The trail was blessed with perfect warm sunny weather in which to enjoy the most spectacular golden tussock country, with riders from throughout New Zealand participating.

 

 

Left image: Taking a breather with Lake Onslow in the background.

Whether it is after just one or ten days the last fleece is always keenly anticipated, with just the press up and completion of specifications to do before heading off to the next shed. However as I have mentioned previously the last bale out of the press does not signify the end of a classer's responsibility.
No matter how good a job you think have made of each clip its not until you see some objective results that you can gauge this.

Getting into the habit to follow up and find out the test results of each clip is significant for a number of reasons:

• Test results can give you an indication of how well you made a good distinction of lines for micron, length and where applicable colour and tensile strength.
• In doing so it provides a check. If the results don't line up as you would expect, or there is an odd result not in line with the rest, then the sooner you are aware it the sooner you are able to do something about it, such as getting a retest. If contract lines don't meet specifications you can communicate, by either phone in person or via e-mail, to the grower or broker your concerns and discuss whether a retest was in order or a bit of a shuffle around in order to meet the required specifications.
• With the increasing amount of wools going into contracts and single selling centres in each Island the opportunity to see physically see the wool on the auction show floor is now limited. Therefore every opportunity to put some figures to the job you are doing is vital.
• Accessing the auction prices either from the local paper, broker or market reports that are available keeps you up to date with market trends and may prove invaluable with fine tuning your next clip preparation.
  Comprehensive market reports are available on web sites: www.mwi.co.nz and www.nzmerino.co.nz.

It is important to make every effort to follow up after preparation or classing each clip, as it is an important aspect for your ongoing education and personal database. It is just as important for your client's benefit as not all have the necessary practical wool knowledge or understanding to relate the physical wool to the figures.
Don't leave it to somebody else.