Climate change was real, to Loddon mixed farmers, the Hooke family, who run three properties Willera, Serpentine Park and Sangus Creek.
The operation, cropping, wool and prime lambs – on the Loddon River floodplain north of Bendigo - was run by brothers Karl and Will Hooke, with assistance from their father Robert.
“The general consensus now is to look 100km north at their average rainfall, and that is what we have to consider as our average rainfall, for the next 15-20 years,” Will Hooke said.
The general consensus now is to look 100km north at their average rainfall, and that is what we have to consider as our average rainfall, for the next 15-20 years.
- Will Hooke, Willera Merinos
Sheep and cropping were the core enterprises within Willera Merinos, with a stud, hay and seed production also in the mix. Coming out of several dry seasons, Mr Hooke said a prime objective was to keep condition on Willera’s 10,000 ewes. “Hopefully, we will be able to carry over a good tonnage of grain, as a bit of a carryover for the sheep enterprise, to ensure we maintain our production.”
He said ewe condition drove lambing percentages, wool returns and prime lamb sales.
“4000 of the breeding ewes are run on the Serpentine Farms with up to 10,000 of the lambs being finished on irrigated and dryland lucerne, grown over the summer months.”
The farms produced Merino wool, prime Merino lambs, and premium replacement one and a half year old and five and a half year old ewes and poll Merino rams.
Mr Hooke said the wool cheque now provided about 60per cent of all income from the sheep operation.
“That could even grow, if wool prices keep going the same way – there’s people who are shearing $100 of wool off a Merino wether at the moment, and it is a pretty low cost business, just to run a flock of Merino wethers.
“But we are not in that business, we finish our wether lambs and sell them as wether lambs, we don’t grow them out.”
They were turned off at 22-26kg in 10 months, while ewe lambs were joined at nine months of age.
Containment areas were used in dry times, to look after pastures and finish lambs for the premium winter market, “if there is opportunity there to do it, and preserve the pastures for our lambing ewes.”
Ewes were joined between early December and mid-February, at a rate of two per cent of rams to ewes. Mr Hooke said the properties had been averaging 105pc lambing rate.
Mr Hooke said Willera was founded on Peppin Merinos, but Leachim bloodlines had since been introduced.
