BREEDING crossbred lambs has allowed the Crick family to increase profitability on their Nerring and Chute farms.
Having bred Merinos for all of their lives, Steven Crick, and wife Wendy, moved to Nerring, just south of Beaufort, 10 years ago, where they incorporated a crossbred side into their operation.
At the family farm in Chute, Steven’s father Rex, and brother Ian, also run Merinos and crossbred lambs.
Steven said during the tougher years, the crossbreds have been a nice, additional income stream.
“The money’s in the meat, wool may be okay this year, but in the last 10-15 years, it hasn’t been amazing,” Steven said.
Ian said it helps to not have “all of our eggs in one basket”.
“If you can breed a Merino that can breed you a first-cross lamb, then you’ve got a dual purpose animal,” Ian said.
“We’ve been in Merinos our whole lives, that was just the done thing.
“It’s a matter of having a foot in each corner, so you’ve got somewhere to move when the market changes.”
The base of the flock is still in Merinos.
“The old Merino ewes are joined to a Border Leicester to breed a first-cross ewe, which is then joined to a White Suffolk for the lambs,” Steven said.
“It’s probably about two-thirds Merinos, and the rest in crossbreds, but it really did seem like a no-brainer.”
The family has been buying Merino rams from Montrose Hill Merino stud, Illabrook, for almost 20 years, and said they were originally introduced to the stud at the Southern Victoria Merino Field Days.
“We did a tour there one day, and just really liked the look of George and Helen [McKenzie]’s flock,” Rex said.
“They’ve got good size in them, and grow nice, soft, white wool.”
Rex had also met George two decades ago when he was building a new woolshed and ordered timber from the Crick family’s sawmill.
“Dad delivered the timber there and George showed him some rams, and the relationship sort of grew from that day,” Steven said.
The family attend the stud’s annual on-property ram sale almost every year, where they usually buy about five rams.
Steven said the Montrose Hill bloodlines have helped them achieve their breeding objectives.
“We’ve always been in the finer end of the wool market, but our aim is to breed a bigger sheep with a heavier wool cut,” Steven said.
“We still want that fine wool, but just a big cut, and we want the big size because it fits in with the crossbred market.”
He said fine wool is well-suited to their area.
“It’s pretty light country here, so it sort of suits the finer wool type,” he said.
“It’s a pretty cold area, with fairly high rainfall, we average about 28 inches a year.”
He said this year’s season had been positive despite the dry winter.
“We had a dry winter, but it’s been pretty good, we had an early break of rain so that’s helped get us through,” he said.
The family aim to shear in early September, and lamb by the end of the month.
Despite the tight turn around, they said they don’t have too many issues during lambing.
“You can’t have your pregnant ewes in the shed too long, or you might have issues, but other than that it’s usually fine,” Steven said.
“The Merinos are good mothers, so things usually go well, but it does all depend on the season and the feed.
“This year, we’ve had good feed right through, so we’re expecting it to go well.”
