“I thought to myself ‘I can’t ever face this again’ – so we started to make some dramatic changes.”
Now they winter 1000 head of cattle, produce 3000 heavy lambs, and are never at the mercy of the market through the saleyards. Dropping ewe numbers and growing more feed has enabled them to become a breeding and finishing unit and set up premium arrangements with meat companies. Scott has worked the farm for the past 30 years, 20 of those years with his father John who, he says, was more focused on a traditional system of being stocked up to the hilt and relying on sheer numbers to make a profit.
The past 10 years he has worked with Bruce, who returned to the farm after a banking career, but because of being active in industry roles (including a stint as Federated Farmers national president) has been part-time at the coal face on the farm. Scott has two teams of four dogs each to take care of the stock work and general hand Des Pledger, who has been on the property for many years, takes care of fences, tracks and maintenance.
Des’ wife has helped out in the brothers’ late-parents’ 12ha renowned open gardens and cafe Trelinnoe Park at the centre of the property.
Scott says he was always uneasy about the high stocking rates and vulnerability to drought on the property and has finally evolved the stock policies to a place where the pressure is off and he can enjoy seeing the stock grow to their potential – and be paid for that performance.
The revamped sheep system sees an emphasis on more efficient terminal sire breeds, maintaining ewes at body condition score (BCS) 5, with quick regain after lambing on 100mm of grass and encouraging clover retention through summer to finish all the lambs. Of course the heavier conditioned ewes cause the shearers to complain and shear about half the number they used to, and Scott and Bruce tend to drag the rams out for them – two of them together.
Dropping sheep numbers to 2100 ewes and changing to two sire lines – Suffolk- Texel (SuffTex) and Texel-Finn-Suffolk – has lifted lambing percentages (to 144% and 151% in the past two years), improved lamb weaning and finishing weights, and allowed the brothers to finish all their own lambs and be paid a premium on the higher-yielding carcases.
Scott Wills and his brother Bruce hope that in the longer term the increased rump muscling from retention of the tail will help to reduce bearing problems.
Dung beetles were introduced to the property recently and Bruce talks animatedly of a time when their army of beetles will be dragging down tonnes of dung into the plant root zone, adding to the sequestering of carbon, improving nutrient availability in the root zone, and speeding up the breakdown of the fibrous mountains of cow pats from a thousand head of cattle.
He admits it may take five to 10 years for their troops to multiply up from the 500 beetles of three varieties introduced.
Above the ground the introduced California thistle beetle has high hopes resting on their ability to munch into submission the thistles blighting the landscape in the same way that an introduced beetle dealt to their earlier nodding thistle problem.
Things are always changing at Trelinnoe, with the Wills brothers dedicated to evolving their business as changes occur in markets and to the environment in which they farm.
“We can’t keep doing what the generation before did – we would end up going out of business.”
