Success a fine line

The family – Reg Hawksford, sons Andrew and Ronald and their wives Katrina and Lana - run 4200 head of Merinos, producing 8000 kilograms of superfine wool a year.

The honour is a reward for the family’s production of a wool clip exhibiting excellence in line with the exacting fibre and preparation standards set by VBC, an Italian-based wool mill.

The Hawksfords had been runners-up in the award before, but according to Andrew, they never thought they would be in a position to take home the trophy.

“We gave ourselves a 50-50 chance going into it because our season was so up and down,” he said.

“We’re not a family that wants to go around and let it be known, but we’re pretty happy with what we’ve got.”

The season that enabled the growth of their prizewinning clip was marked by a mild winter and a good amount of pasture that ensured the flock was grazing all the time.

The family’s country had received more than 640 millimetres of rain last year.

Mr Hawksford said their superfine wool, between 14 and 17.5 micron, was 25 years in the making.

He, Ronald and Reg bought their principal property, “Glenburnie”, in 1991, and acquired their second property, “Orana”, in 2006.

In 2007 they had their peak shearing with 5200 sheep, but in recent years have decreased their flock to focus on breeding quality wool producing animals.

“These days we try and keep it fairly neat,” Mr Hawksford said.

“We don’t carry anything that shouldn’t be here in terms of wool quality.”

Mr Hawksford said the focus of their breeding program was on soft, easy-handling sheep that carried bright, stylish wool.

He ensures his mob maintains these qualities by classing his ewes with a heavy-hand, and chasing the best available rams.

Rams are sourced from Peter and Greg Munsie’s Kelvin Vale stud, Uralla.

“In the past I’ve bought rams for a bit over $5000 but normally we’re paying a bit for them because we want the same ones everybody else wants,” he said.

As a way to adjust to the falling value of superfine wool, in recent years the Hawksfords have crossed their “lower-line” Merino ewes with Border Leicesters and sold the first-cross offspring.

“If we sold those (Merino) ewes, somebody else would just buy them and do the same thing, so we’re trying to make the most of another source of income,” he said.

Mr Hawksford said despite the way the superfine market had gone, he was “on to a good thing” and he’s sticking with it.

“One might think I’m a glutton for punishment because we’ve got the flock the way it is, with the majority superfine and a handful of crossbreds,” he said.

“But when you win a competition like this you think, ‘well, this isn’t too bad is it?’”

Mr Hawksford said a number of his superfine wool producing neighbours had moved some way into the cross-bred market.

“Many have joined a lot more ewes to make cross-breds than they normally would have but I’m a bit worried if everybody goes that way then there will be a glut of those too.”

SUPERFINE wool grower Andrew Hawksford and family will soon be off to Italy to tour The Vitale Barberis Canonico (VBC) wool mill, and are sailing into 2015 with prizemoney equal to the full delivered value of all the wool bought by VBC in the 2013-14 season.

As winners of the company’s Wool Excellence Award, Mr Hawksford, “Glenburnie”, Kentucky, said he must be doing something right.

Mr Hawksford (pictured with his father, Reg) said his secret to success was keeping his flock young, and keeping the feed up to them.

“The season went with us this year, and whatever we fed the stock with worked for us.”

He had a constant supply of pasture and hand-fed corn with a powder supplement to aid digestion.

Mr Hawksford said each year they culled heavily, and were working towards keeping a younger flock.

“We’re trying to get back to nothing over five years old,” he said.

“I would like to have a younger age spacing to work with.”

Their wool classing was done by Peter Munsie of Kelvin Vale stud, Uralla, who also supplies the Hawksfords’ rams.