Ongerup Lambs Take WAMMCO Title
A SAMM ram “escapee” that produced 430 lambs, also produced October’s WAMMCO Producer of the Month title for David and Robert Hooper of ‘Blythswood’ Ongerup.
“We let him go free when he kept jumping out of the yard, and he went on to produce all those lambs from two mobs of ewes,” David said. The last 151 of these lambs took out the October award with an average of $79.42 per head from an average carcase weight of 24.79 kg.”
The consignment was killed at WAMMCO, Katanning on October 25, with 78.8 percent achieving premium class and 62 percent weighing in above 24.1 kg.
The Hoopers were early commercial users of SAMM rams in WA, taking their first draft about six years ago from the Gracefield stud of Rocco de Bellis at Katanning and using sires from the Katanning stud over their Merino ewes ever since.
David said the lamb operation fitted well with their sheep/cropping enterprise on the 6,000 hectare “Blythswood”.
“We sow lucerne in a four year rotation to correct weed, water table or other problems, before cropping the area. These lambs were straight off an 80 ha lucerne paddock onto the truck,” he said.
“Mike Moore of Landmark Gnowangerup negotiates all of the contract and delivery arrangements with WAMMCO and our job is to get the lambs ready.”
Lamb production has averaged about 500 a year, but David and Robert are in the final stages of completing a feedlot to take around 1000 lambs in January/February, aimed at ‘capturing out-of-season highs.’
David says lamb and mutton prices have been excellent over the past few years.
$80 for a lamb is damned good money and producing them, even in a tight year like this one, fits well within our program,” he said.
A shearer for many years, David said he bought his first block of farmland at Mt.Barker – instead of buying a car. The move to Blythswood came in 1990.
Son Robert and his wife Kylee are proprietors of Blythswood Transport, as well as running the farm.
BUNKIN LAMBS TAKE DECEMBER TITLE
Grazing their ewes and lambs on crops of Spartacus barley with a complement of pellets and salt licks, and capitalizing on the higher profitability of their SAMMs, has proved to ...
Read moreANOTHER WIN FOR LUCCHESI FAMILY
Timely rains on their home property at Kulin early this season started a profitable chain reaction for the prime lamb enterprise of the Lucchesi family. An abundance of green pasture ...
Read moreJAMES FAMILY LAMBS PUT KARLGARIN ON MAP
The pioneering James family of Karlgarin has joined the ranks of WAMMCO achievers with Murray and Leonie James and their sons Sam and Alex and partners, of ‘Jesmond-Dene’ ...
Read moreGAZES SCORE WAMMCO MAXIMUM
Gnowangerup producers Owen, William and Fiona Gaze regard their maximum score as WAMMCO’s Producers of the Month for September 2020, as confirmation that the sheep industry can continue to ...
Read moreULTRAWHITES DELIVER AT KULIN
Kulin farmers Brian and Elle Bowey have followed through on a very close runner’s up ribbon for WAMMCO Producer of the Month in September last year, to take ...
Read more
