FINDING a producer with more detailed records of his sheep’s performance than Mid North farmer Paul Thomas would be a tough task, with this attention to detail paying off in his family enterprise.
Paul and his wife Lyn farm alongside their son David and his wife Karen, trading under PDL Thomas.
David’s sons Liam, 3, and Josh, 6, are the sixth generation on the farm.
The family’s property at Gulnare was originally part of Bundaleer Station, but when that property was sub-divided in 1912, it went from station to cropping country.
“My family’s focus was more on cropping, even through the wool booms of the 1950s,” Paul said. “But when I came back from school in the 1970s, that’s when we started to focus on sheep.”
While cropping is still the backbone of the enterprise, there is a growing emphasis on sheep. The family’s farm ranges from good cropping ground to steep, non-arable hills.
“We have about 850 ewes on hand, with young ewes and breeding ewes,” Paul said. “We consistently mate about 700 ewes each year, but we’re looking to increase that to 1000.”
The recent purchase of a grazing block in the Gulnare hills was made with the sole intention of upping sheep numbers.
David said vetch was an important part of their business, with lambs weaned onto it in August or September.
“We sow a lot of vetch because it fits in well with our cropping rotation and gives us a perfect place to wean lambs into,” he said. “If the vetch is good, we’ll also run our young breeders on it as well, to grow them out. We just find by giving them that good start, it helps carry them through.”
While the family has dabbled in crossbreds in the past, Paul said the enterprise has been 99.8 per cent pure Merino.
“We’ll stick with Merinos because we’ve put in a lot of time and effort to get them to where they are now,” he said.
Shearing is done in February and lambs drop in late May/June.
“We’ll stay with 12-month shearing as we consistently work on the same time-frame and it ties in well with the cropping,” Paul said.
Record-breaking prices achieved at Jamestown
THE Thomas family have held the saleyard record price at Jamestown three times.
Setting the present record at the September sale, they sold 184 North Ashrose-bloods to Pinkerton Palm Hamlyn & Steen for $283.
The first time they set a record at Jamestown was back in 2002 with their young ewes making $124.
“That was a huge price back then,” Paul said.
The family usually sells their stock within the top three pens at the saleyard.
David puts their success at Jamestown down to the ewes’ presentation.
“They’re always presented ready to go, so the buyer doesn’t have to fatten them and they can go straight to work,” he said.
The Thomas family have been buying rams from North Ashrose for many years, after starting with the Ashrose stud in 1986.
“The North Ashrose stud is breeding sheep right next door to us, so they’re suited to our environment,” David said.
“They also produce big, robust sheep.
“We’re lucky with where we’re located in the Mid North. We have some of the best Merino studs in Australia nearby so we have a good base to select from.”
The Thomas family’s wether lambs are fattened on bean stubbles, with about half sold on-hook to Thomas Foods International and the other half sent to the Dublin saleyard.
“We’re aiming for 50 kilograms liveweight with our wether lambs,” David said.
Lambing percentages have been 105 per cent for nine out of the past 12 years. Generally 50 per cent of their ewe hoggets are classed out, with the help of Paul Cousins.
