Rodney Hill travels from the state’s north east to the Gippsland Merino Ram Sale each year to source hardy sheep that can survive and perform in Strathbogie’s harsh climate.
He has previously purchased rams consigned by other studs in the annual sale, and in the past three or four years has bought those from Pendarra stud. The stud is owned by Jackie and Kelvin Pendergast and based at Benambra.
“The main reason we go up there is to buy cold country bred sheep because there’s not too many harsher climates than Strathbogie, and Benambra is one of them,” Mr Hill said.
“If the sheep can survive in Benambra, they can survive here.”
When Mr Hill selects rams for the flock at Jarroe Valley, he looks for early maturing rams; with a fairly big frame; nice bright, white wool; and easier care.
The Hills swapped to buying mostly Poll Merino rams a few years ago for easier handling, including at shearing.
“They’ll be our first choice again this year,” Mr Hill said.
He said because they have a 36 inch, or 914 millimetre, rainfall, they needed sheep that had high quality wool that could withstand the rainfall, not necessarily the heaviest cutters.
Earlier this week, Mr Hill was preparing the Merinos for shearing, which weather-depending, will start on Thursday.
He’s hopeful to get the bales to the Melbourne auction quickly to, hopefully, catch the strong prices.
The flock’s clip averages between 18 and 19 micron, and the Hill family buys rams from the finer end of the fibre diameter at Bairnsdale to maintain that range.
“We also cull our Merinos reasonably hard, and join culls to Border Leicesters,” Mr Hill said.
This year, they will join around 850 Merino ewes to Merino rams and 450 to 500 Merino ewes to Border Leicester rams. About 1000 first-cross ewes will also be joined, with the one year-old ewe lambs joined to Southdowns and the mature first-cross ewes to Poll Dorsets.
Fifty Poll Hereford cows also call Jarroe Valley home.
Mr Hill is the fifth generation of his family to farm in the area, and he purchased this property on his own when he was 18 years old. He and wife Katie, with children Albert, Sarah and Charlie, now own and lease 1800 acres, or 728 hectares.
The ewes are joined in November for an April lambing.
Mr Hill said they tried to get the Merino lambs on the ground before the weather turned too cold.
The Merino rams are put out at a ratio of 1 to 65 or 70 ewes.
“We marked over 100 per cent in the Merino to Merino joining without scanning,” Mr Hill said.
“And the cross-breds (marked) around 150 per cent (lambs) this year.”
Last season, they weaned the cross-bred lambs early because the conditions were tough and put them on agistment, with “good tucker to finish them off”, Mr Hill said. He said giving the ewes more time between weaning off their lambs and rejoining gave them more time to get back into condition, which he thought was reflected in their good joining.
Because they lamb earlier than some other farmers in the north-east, Mr Hill said if they got a later autumn break, they often had to give supplementary feed, which is usually silage that is wither made on-farm or bought in, depending on the season.
The rest of the year, the sheep graze on improved pastures, mainly of a clover and rye grass base.
Mr Hill said they did a bit of pasture renovation each year and spread fertiliser every summer, paying particular attention to keeping the soils’ pH levels right which often required applications of lime.
He said in their granite country, the soils varied lot in each paddock.
He moved shearing the Merinos forward a couple of weeks this year, to be in late August or early September, for a few reasons, including that they also run a small livestock transport business, so wanted to complete shearing before they got busy taking fat lambs from Euroa area to market.
The Merinos to be shorn from this week will also include wether weaners. In previous years, they’ve sold Merino wethers sold as 10-11 month-old lambs to the Muslim Kill (MK) market, but this year have retained them. This will help them stock a new farm without having to buy in animals.
