Thieves target SA farms

The offences, mainly involving sheep, were spread across the state with Yorke Mid North local service area recording the highest number, followed by Eyre and Western LSA and Murray Mallee LSA. 

With many Merino wool bales worth $3000 each in today’s market and lambs making at least $150 a head, farms have become an attractive target for thieves.

But, the 18pc increase could also be from producers more inclined to report the theft due to high prices of sheep and wool.

Earlier this month, 48 bales of largely Merino wool, branded with the DF&JK Head stencil, were reported stolen at Colebatch, near Tintinara.

In comparison, in 2017-18 only five reports of wool theft were received by SAPOL, with each incident involving less than five bales.

In recent years, former Australian Conservatives MLC Robert Brokenshire repeatedly called for a stock squad with Operation Poach only resulting in 14 people charged with stock theft by the end of 2017.

But Livestock SA president Joe Keynes says the organisation supports Operation Poach, established by SAPOL in 2011, “as long as it is appropriately resourced to ensure offenders are prosecuted”.

He does not believe a specialised stock squad is the answer.

“It is incumbent on all police officers investigating the theft of wool, livestock or farm equipment and SAPOL providing the skills and training to understand rural theft,” he said.

“But theft is theft, whether it is furniture from a house or sheep from a paddock when police officers are collecting evidence to hand to prosecutors.”

Mr Keynes said police could not be everywhere and producers also needed to keep their “eyes and ears open” and report any suspicious activity in their local area.

“When your stock are in the yards count them and be vigilant about locking gates,” he said.

In March, 23 weanling alpacas were stolen overnight from a mob of 250 alpacas at Hindmarsh Valley on the Fleurieu Peninsula.

Owner Ben Schmaal, Softfoot Alpacas, says there has been no trace of the animals, which were destined for live export to China.

Since the theft he has made several changes, such as only running cattle on the periphery of the property and increasing security with camouflage cameras and signs stating the property is under surveillance.

“They (the cameras) cost $2000 but we lost $25,000 worth of animals so it is a small price to pay,” he said.

“It is a daily occurrence for cars to stop and look at the alpacas so it was difficult for us to notice anything suspicious.”

A SA Police spokesperson said they continued to work closely with the livestock and wool growing communities across the state to achieve enhanced community safety in the regions, by supporting farmers to combat and reduce stock and wool thefts through proven crime prevention techniques.

When David Head returned to his Tolmer Rocks property from a week on the Eyre Peninsula, he discovered about $100,000 worth of wool was gone. 

A fortnight later, he understands he is unlikely to ever see the 48 bales of wool – which were from a couple of shearings at his feedlot – again.

But he is keen to ensure no one has the same “sick feeling” of walking into an empty shearing shed.

He is urging farmers to recognise they are easy targets for crime and be more proactive about protecting their assets; locking their sheds and ensuring they remove wool from their sheds as soon as possible.

“Once upon a time you didn’t need to lock your cars or houses but now if you leave your car unlocked in many areas it would be gone,” he said.

“I got complacent because the wool prices were going up so thought there was no panic to send it in, but the safest place for wool is in the wool stores.”

Mr Head and his wife Joanne are considering installing security cameras to deter the thieves coming back, especially with the shed close to the road and 23 kilometres from town.

Since the incident he has been surprised by the number of phone calls he has received from other farmers who have lost a bale here or there and urges anyone even suspicious they may have had wool stolen to report it to police.

“Over the years we have lost the odd bale which we put down to misbranding or a paperwork error and never reported it but now I’m not so sure,” he said.

“There are desperate people out there for different reasons willing to steal sheep or anything else from farms with those in the back blocks especially at risk.”

Mr Head has high praise for the thorough police investigation by the Murray Bridge CIB and is still hopeful the thieves will be found one day.

“The Murray Bridge detectives have alerted all the wool stores but if anyone knows any little thing, please contact the police,” he said.

“It would have taken at least two people and a truck to move it.”

The wool theft has been another crippling financial blow for the Heads, who are also pig farmers and losing about $10,000 a month from the present pork oversupply.