IT IS not the most traditional reason why one family would stick with the same stud for 50 years.
But Gregor Wilkins doesn’t hesitate when asked why his family turn up at the Old Ashrose ram sale at Hallett every year.
“They’re big, woolly buggers,” he said.
No, not traditional, but it sums up what he expects of the flock on his family’s Kanimbla property at Yaninee, via Wudinna, on the Eyre Peninsula.
Old Ashrose, a scion of the historic Ashrose gene pool, founded 107 years ago in the South East, is based at Hallett on the northern fringe of the wool-rich Mid North.
Working with its genetic progress, Mr Wilkins and his family have seen a consistent fining of their micron in the past 20 years.
“We are between 21M and 22M, depending on the season,” Mr Wilkins said.
“And in classic SA sheep style, our adult sheep are large-framed, with our ewes cutting eight kilograms of fleece wool.
“In those 20 years, we have come down 1.5M, but we don’t want to go below that, as you start getting much finer and you start getting less wool from a smaller sheep.
“We have the best of both worlds – big sheep, big wool cuts and an animal that will survive and thrive in our country as well as producing good crossbred lambs.”
Across Kanimbla’s 2800 hectares, the Wilkins family crop about 60 per cent of their land and in a good year run 2000 sheep.
“Unfortunately we are having a pretty dry year, so our numbers are down to about 1000 ewes, 600 lambs and 200 wethers,” Mr Wilkins said.
Mr Wilkins said their Old Ashrose sheep have clean wool with plenty of length and great definition of crimp.
Lambing is in April/May, shearing in July and joining is all natural, using 2pc rams for every 30 sheep.
And tucked away in a distant corner of the farm are 150 to 200 older ewes mated to White Suffolk rams, with the Wilkins family keeping their wethers for three years and crossbred lambs for six months.
They will be at next year’s Old Ashrose sale – Mr Wilkins, his father Barry who is still helping out, and son Stefan.
They will take home a small draft of rams every year and always keep a close eye on their production parameters. And right now, all three generations of the family are also keeping a close eye on the sky.
In classic SA sheep style, our adult sheep are large-framed, with our ewes cutting 8kg of fleece wool.
- GREGOR WILKINS