THE Spinks family are taking advantage of the strong sheep market, expanding their Naturi-based farming operation and putting an ever-greater emphasis on the sheep component.
Kevin Spinks and wife Kathy, son Michael and Kevin’s brother Brian used to crop 400 hectares near Tailem Bend.
But they have reduced that to 300ha as they look to make the most of a buoyant lamb market.
“We went from trying to put a third of our acreage into crop to well under 20 per cent,” Kevin said.
“We wanted to do a better job with our sheep.”
They have built up their sheep numbers steadily, increasing their flock of Merino ewes from 1840 last year – dropping 1960 lambs – to 1920 this year, and also bought a new block at Chapman Bore to increase their property size to 1780ha.
Kevin said they had reached their optimum stocking rate.
“Since we’ve been running this many sheep we’ve found we don’t have too many troubles,” he said.
The Spinks family buy 400-450 Merino ewes a year from the Murray Bridge and Lameroo off-shear sales, and 15-20 Border Leicester rams a year, targeting the popular Naracoorte first-cross sales, where this year they will send 900 ewe lambs and 45 hoggets.
They have already sold 940 wether lambs this season.
Many of the rams are sourced from the Morton Border Leicester stud, Lucindale, where the family have been buying for 29 consecutive years.
“I’m very happy with both the Morton and Inverbrackie rams we bought this year,” Mr Spinks said.
“They went in on Melbourne Cup day and have gone in beautifully.”
Kevin likes his rams to be nice and upstanding, with good wools.
“We don’t want that harsh-looking wool on the hindquarters,” he said.
“We also make sure their teeth are right and try not to get too many with too many black spots.”
Wool has also been a winner for the family.
Their recent wool clip, sold through Landmark, averaged 21-22 micron and returned about 910 cents a kilogram.
The fantastic return on wool and sheep has seen the family use a lot of its crop for feed.
“We cut a fair bit of hay and keep a bit of grain for feed as well, mainly oats and a bit of barley as well,” he said.
With their paddock feed looking “absolutely fantastic”, the future is bright for the family, who been involved in the sheep industry for more than five decades.
With Michael keen to carry on the family tradition, and grandchildren already showing an interest in the farm, it appears the Spinks name will be a regular feature at saleyards in years to come.
