A simple request from her father, David, has resulted in an agribusiness study path for Stockyard Hill 21-year old Katherine Bain.
Ms Bain, one of the sixth generation of the family at St Enochs, said she started a small Coopworth stud, when she was 14. “Dad was looking to boost weaning percentages in the Coopworths, they bear lots of twins and are very good mothers,” Ms Bain said.
“They are good doers in the hard country, they don’t need much feeding.We had a family friend who was running Coopworths, so we decided to go with those.”
While still studying at Ballarat and Clarendon College, she started with 50 ewes and one ram. Since finishing school, she has begun a business degree, with a focus on agriculture, at Marcus Oldham College, Geelong. “I am finding a lot of the things I am learning at Marcus I can put into the stud and I am hoping, in the next couple of years, I can put more time into that and really expand it.”
She said St Enoch’s comprised 1700 hectares of volcanic country - “lots of rocks” – only allowing for a small amount of cropping, mainly lucerne and oats for sheep feed. While some of the stud rams were sold to interested customers, the main aim was to provide animals for the family’s operation.
Ms Bain said she started the stud with Clifton Hill Coopworth bloodlines, the first of the breed in Australia. Recently she said she had introduced a Waradgery ram, from the Brit Brit property, as well.
The Bains have a flock of about 4500 crossbreds, complimented by 3500 Merinos. The Merinos were from Bindawarra and Roseville Park bloodlines. “We put the White Suffolk over the Coopworth and sell them as terminals, into the Ballarat store market as prime lambs,” Ms Bain said.
“We are joining one ram to roughly 50-80 ewes, because we have the stud, we have enough rams to do that.” Wool cut averaged 18.5-microns, at about 5kg.
Stocking rates were light in the “shrubby” country, between four to five dse, and the Bains had put land management practices in place to protect some of the rare grasses on the property.
Ms Bain said her aim was to work in agricultural trade and marketing, and recently received a Horizon scholarship, from Australian Wool Innovation (AWI). “Growing up on the farm, being surrounded by sheep my whole life, I have grown to love them. I really love fibre and the product they produce,” Ms Bain said.
“There is room for expansion – the AWI initiative with the AFL, using it in the jerseys, is one area and there is definitely room for ultrafine wool in sports clothes.”
Ms Bain said she would probably return to St Enoch’s, but first wanted to learn more about agriculture in general.
“It’s good to get a bit more experience and see the wider world, being able to learn something else and apply it.”
