The stud has tested hundreds of rams over a period of 30 years for Facial Eczema tolerance. We regard ourselves as having one of the highest tolerant flocks in NZ for Facial Eczema. This is judged by the very high levels of Sporidesmin used to test rams. The results speak for themselves.

With increasing pasture growth from better grass species, increased fertiliser application, and the effects of global warming, Facial Eczema has become a major constraint to overall production in sheep in the North Island and in the north of the South Island.

We have numerous clients who have used our FE tolerant rams exclusively over a long period of time and have reduced their incidence of Facial Eczema to virtually nil. The longer you continue to buy rams from breeders who do not test for F.E. tolerance the worse your Facial Eczema problem will become.

Piquet Hill has aligned themselves with a select group of stud breeders joining the F.E Gold Group. The purpose of the group was to quality assure Facial Eczema genetics so that commercial farmer with a F.E problem would have confidence that buying off a F.E Gold breeder they would be buying the best in regard this trait.

Each breeder has to meet a series of requirements to gain the F.E Gold status these are as follows

1) Using exclusively F.E tested sires for at least ten years

2) Testing at no less than .6 mgs of sporodasmin per kg live weight

3) Testing 10% of sires sold

As breeders that have spent hundreds of thousands developing facial eczema genetics we feel the F.E Gold trademark is a positive step insuring correct representation in the market place.