Lynda and James Cartwright, Bungaree, Raywood, have continued the tradition of breeding high quality, feature sale-topping Border Leicester-Merino ewes.
Her late father Hedley Lourie started selling top-end first-cross ewes at Bendigo private agents’ annual sheep sale in November at least 15 years ago.
“We’ve been lucky enough to do the same and tried to carry the tradition on,” Mrs Cartwright said.
They have topped the sale for the past few years, selling through Ellis Nuttall & Co.
Last year, their crossbred ewes kicked off the blue ribbon sale and two of their pens topped it at $286.
Stock & Land market analyst Murray Arnel reported these market toppers were “outstandingly well prepared”.
They were again knocked down to repeat buyer, Mike Durkan, Thorpdale.
Mrs Cartwright said the Gippsland buyer always commented their ewes stood up to the cold and he was happy to pay the market rate because he was confident the ewes would perform when he joined them to terminal sires.
Mrs Cartwright said on their about 1416-hectare farm (where they also produce hay) they bred their own Border Leicester rams. They take their pick and sell a few flock rams.
The family bought rams from Lloyd Holden at Goornong, and when he retired, they bought rams and ewes.
“We got to the stage in the past few years that we’ve had to source out-cross genetics,” Mrs Cartwright said.
“Last year was the last time we could use Holden rams.”
She said they still had pure and half Holden blood ewes and had bought a couple of rams in, including from Kelso at Tatura, Deepdene at Wagga Wagga NSW, and some at Duenclin when it dispersed its Border Leicesters. They look for rams with good quality wool, as well as length and depth.
“The wool factor is still important with cross-bred sheep. We’re trying to keep the micron under 28 to capitalise on the strong cross-bred wool market.”
The Cartwrights also pay close attention to the breeding and quality of Merino ewes they buy in, whether they are sourced from Wycheproof, Swan Hill, Hay or Deniliquin.
Mrs Cartwright said they were willing to pay the sales’ top prices to secure the well-bred and prepared ewes.
“We work our ewes fairly hard; we have them lamb three times in two years.”
She said if a ewe wasn’t performing, it needed to go. She said having three lambing periods a year and doing the mulesing and other things themselves, kept her and James busy.
This year they will sell around 300 ewes in the 1.5 year-old category, about 250 one year-olds and about 500 lambs at the feature sale.