The Hooke family are set on breeding a modern, efficient, profitable type of Merino that Will Hooke said would “...stand up and deliver the returns in wool and meat”.
They established the Willera Poll Merino stud in 2008 and will display sheep at the Loddon Valley Stud Merino Field Day at Sangus Creek, 4km out of Serpentine.
They’ve used Leachim Poll genetics and Mr Hooke said that was to maintain and increase staple length and meat production.
He said at Willera, they continued to push hard for staple length, which meant they could maintain wool cut, without compromising a free-growing, plain-bodied animal. Mr Hooke said mulesing would “inevitably” be phased out in Australia.
They also select for deep-bodied Merinos with high eye muscle, a broad rump and fat.
A testament to the sheep’s productivity, the team shears every six months and cuts nine kilograms annually of wool that averages 19 to 21 micron in the adult flock.
Mr Hooke said some clients were also shearing twice a year, especially their one and two year-olds.
“Fertility comes hand in hand with the style of open-faced and plain-bodied sheep,” Mr Hooke said.
The family operation, which includes Will and his wife Kia, brother Karl and his wife Kate, and their parents Robert and Cathie, has recently welcomed Simon Coutts to their team.
This year, anyone in the business that has not done the Lifetime Ewe Management course will do it, because Mr Hooke said it boosted your confidence to act and best manage animals.
Together, they run about 1500 stud ewes and 9000 commercial ewes, as part of a mixed farming operation that also includes winter cropping and irrigated lucerne in summer.
Mr Hooke said he and Karl were the fifth generation to produce productive Merinos, and they were driven to breed a modern and efficient type because they wanted a long future on the land and this type of sheep that met the current market and society demands would help make that possible.
They’re excited to have a client base of repeat buyers with commercial operations, mostly in Victoria.
As the secretary and treasurer of the Loddon Valley Stud Merinos, Mr Hooke is excited the group has introduced a workshop as part of this year’s field day. The workshop has guest speakers to help sheep producers consider how they can use electronic identification (eID) tags on their farms and otherwise make decisions.
Mr Hooke said eID tags were very useful to help inform breeding decisions in the stud and increasingly as technology became simpler to manage, there would be more benefits for commercial producers too.