Rob and Angela Perkins started coming to Narweena Station in the Western District locale of Woodhouse in 2000 and fell in love with it.
They were then running a dairy farm in Devon, in south-west England, and travelled across the globe to help Rob’s second cousin George Crocombe, who was then 70, when his beef cows were calving.
The next year, the Perkins’ dairy herd contracted foot and mouth disease and they had to cull all of their livestock.
“When we cleared up after being contracted with foot and mouth, we couldn’t restock for six months – so we came here and worked on the farm,” Rob said.
“We were hooked,” Angela said.
They made the move in 2007 and are now Australian citizens.
The biggest differences between farming in Australia and the UK are space and sunshine.
“Nearly every day we see sunshine,” Rob said.
Australia’s abundance of it means grass grows for more of the year and animals don’t have to be shedded in winter.
As for the scale of the farm, Angela said they had one paddock here that was nearly the size of their farm in the UK.
It is also very different to run beef compared to dairy cows, although the Perkins said they still go around the calving cows twice a day and know many of the cows.
They run 900 cows on the 1100 hectares.
The herd is a mix of breeds, although the couple is working to have more Angus and some Charolais cows. About 700 of the cows calve in autumn and 200 in spring. Cows that don’t get in-calf gets a second chance in the springer mob.
The Perkins have followed George’s lead and continue to buy Mt William Charolais bulls.
They’ve stuck with Charolais because the progeny “just grow”, Rob said.
“They seem to do well in this district; we’ve got heavy ground here, so calves put on weight. The top one his year weighed 518kg at 11 months.”
They said the bulls were deep and thick-bodied, and they favoured polled bulls.
The bulls each go out into mobs of about 45 cows. When the bulls are put in and taken out revolves around the Perkins’ annual six-week trip to the UK. Angela said that trip and regular video calls made it possible to live so far away from their family.
They have sold the progeny on AuctionsPlus for eight years. They sell about 500 mixed-sex, autumn-drop weaners on the last Friday of January; and usually the spring-drop calves on the first Friday in September.
Rob said they were the first farm in Victoria to put the whole drop on AuctionsPlus. They said selling the calves online avoided many stressors for the animals and they could set the price.
They’ve had cattle go to every eastern state. Princess Royal Station, Burra, South Australia, is repeat buyer of their calves and in late January bought five of eight sale lots.
Since the cattle have been EU accredited, the Perkins have retained more heifers or have had to buy them in very selectively.
They keep herbicide spraying to a minimum on the ryegrass and clover pastures.
Two years ago, George, Rob and Angela were pushing the stocking rate and got past the 1000 cow mark, but then they had two failed springs and moved to retain more heifers, so they’ve winded the herd expansion back.
