Mr Gardyne and his wife, Rose, along with son Grant and his wife, Teri, took over the 489ha dryland hill country property in the Ida Valley about nine years ago, after farming in Winton.
They did a drench reduction test to identify the drench status of the property and found they were on the verge of getting drench resistance.
By using refugia from parasite larvae from adult stock that had not been drenched, exposed to drench capsules or long acting injections in 30 years as well as the Carla test, they have been able to breed Perendale Texel rams with 95% medium or high Carla immunity to parasites.
Their Perendale rams have a 100% medium or high Carla immunity.
They now run 1750 Perendale ewes, including 465 ewe hoggets mated and 160 stud ram hoggets.
They also have Klifden Perendales and Crest Texels studs.
The Carla test was developed by AgResearch to test for parasites in sheep.
Saliva samples were sent to Massey University where they measure the antigens, which is an immune response to the parasites present in the gut.
Later, the deer industry carried on with the research at Invermay.
"Research showed the immune response trait was .2 for heritability when fawns were tested at six months, and when they were tested at 10 months, the heritability went up to .45, which was incredibly high."
For the past three years, the Gardynes have swabbed ram hoggets in spring rather than the traditional autumn since hearing about the work of North Canterbury Perendale breeder Tim Anderson.
He found swabbing in spring showed greater and more meaningful results, Mr Gardyne said.
The animals’ immune system was more developed at that age and gave a better indication of immunity status.
"It is important to have adult animals with good immune systems against parasites.
"A general rule of thumb is, if you treat your ewes with drench products, you will halve the time it takes for you to reach drench resistance.
Three breeders out of
all sheep breeders in the South Island used the test, he said.
