AN AIRCRAFT engineer in the Middle East during the Second World War, Jim Turner, Glen Hope Station, White Cliffs, bought his first plane in 1964, a Cessna 172.
Jim sold that model in 1968 to buy a Cessna FR172 Reims Rocket, which had a much bigger engine that allowed him to spot sheep during mustering and direct crews, as well as fly to Broken Hill for shopping.
Barry Turner, Polpah Station, White Cliffs, inherited both his father’s love of flying and the Reims Rocket, which these days is quite a rare model.
Flying now for 35 years, Barry said some people still used Cessnas for aerial mustering but most preferred to use smaller gyrocopters which were far more manoeuvrable, cheaper to run, and could slow to spot stock in scrub.
Barry is still flying the Reims Rocket, doing a little stock “spotting” to assist during mustering, and has been known to use the plane for the occasional short trip between “Polpah” and neighbouring Goodwood Station to visit his son, Zane, and family for lunch.
While he loves his now antique plane, when it comes to livestock he’s much more modern in his thinking.
Despite being traditionally a Merino area, an increasing number of Western Division graziers have looked to exotic sheep breeds to gain an edge in tough conditions, and Barry and wife Annette were among those to start crossbreeding for lamb production introducing newer breeds into their Merino flock rather than stick purely with wool.
The Turners were among the first people in the region to introduce Damaras in 1998.
“We went to Western Australia to look at them – they could live on almost nothing so were well suited to drought conditions,” Barry said.
“It turned out their main pitfall, being non-selective grazers, was they ate everything.
“After six months we were started on the next drought – and we could only run half as many head as Merinos because they were non-selective grazers.”
The Turners made good money from the Damaras while live exports were active – seven-month-old, unmarked lambs were bringing $65/head, compared with $12 to $15/head for Merino lambs which had to be 12 months old.
Changes in the live export market, however, brought a halt to the job and the Turners moved out of Damaras in 2002-03.
For the 12 months before this, “Polpah” had been through a severe drought – receiving only 50 millimetres (two inches) of rain for the year – so reduced sheep numbers.
The Turners had been running close to 9000 head and sold about a third.
By now some of the sheep in their flock were close to pure Damara, although the bulk were still crossbred.
Barry switched to White Suffolks and today is producing a White Suffolk/Damara/Merino/Dorper lamb from a flock of 4000 breeding ewes.
“White Suffolks do well out here, particularly during the dry times – they last the longest in the dry and get fat the fastest when the season improves,” Barry said.
“We’ve found the crossbreds are worth $30 to $40/head more than Merinos and Dohnes for meat.”
The Turners are selling on average 3000 White Suffolk-cross lambs a year, turned off at 11 to 12 months old, at an average weight of 24 kilograms, worth $5.40 to $5.60 a kilogram.
Since the introduction of the White Suffolks, Barry has sold most of the black-fibred Damaras.
He’s recently started buying Dohne rams and plans to move back to a combined meat and wool operation.
