IAN Milliken has relocated his Merino operation three times in the past 12 years, all in the spirit of facing new challenges.
“Because of my age, a lot of people asked me why I did it, and I said ‘you’ve got to have a reason to get up in the morning, you’ve got to have a challenge’,” Mr Milliken said.
He farmed in Hay, NSW, for 36 years, before he set out on his first challenge – packing up and moving to Yea.
“I was going to run Hay and Yea at the same time, but we decided we’d just run Yea, so we sold Hay,” he said.
“But the winter down there wasn’t very kind, the fog lifted at 2pm, and came back at 4pm. I just felt bad for the animals.”
After five years at Yea, he, with son Ben, packed up again and relocated to Euroa, where they stayed for another six years.
“I tried for 12 years to get sheep to grow down south, but no matter what you fed them, they didn’t grow like they do in the Riverina,” he said.
This inspired the third relocation, but it was back to where things started, in Wanganella, NSW, just south of his home town of Hay.
“The climate in the Riverina just perfectly suits what we’re trying to do,” he said.
They’re now running 6000 breeding ewes on 13,200 hectares.
In the last few years, they have transitioned from 12 month shearing to eight month shearing, a move Mr Milliken said has been of great benefit.
“I’ve changed to shear every eight months, basically because it’s easier on the sheep, they’re not carrying around all that wool, and we’re not crutching,” he said.
“And that is the type of wool that the market seems to want, 56-70 millimetres.”
He said the shearing is revolved around lambing.
“You lock in the middle of April to the end of May for your lambing, and you work your shearing around that, whether it’s seven, eight or nine months, you do it when you can,” he said.
“Hopefully the next shearing will be in July after lambing, and the next one in March before lambing.”
He said while shearing more frequently adds time and costs, the overall return and benefit on sheep health, outweighs these costs.
“We are cutting 4.2-4.5 kilograms every eight months, as opposed to 6-7kg every 12 months,” he said.
“The vegetable matter is lower, the strength is higher, and the yield is higher, so I’m gaining in all of those three things, and that seems to make up for shearing every eight months.”
He said he has transitioned the flock to be entirely polled. “I’m now breeding polls, with no horns coming through, I just think they’re more fertile sheep, they’re the modern Merino,” he said.
“But the genetic make up of the Poll Merino is not as big as the Merinos, so occasionally a Poll Merino breeder will need to go to a Merino breeder to get something he’s looking for, whether that be size or wool, so there’s still a long way to go.”
