Hillcroft Farm’s sale splits stud in two

The sale, which was negotiated through Landmark, will see just short of 700 stud ewes and ewe lambs split evenly between buyers Collyn Gar- nett, Curlew Creek stud, Gnowangerup, WA, and Tom Bull, Lambpro stud, Holbrook.

According to Hillcroft Farms stud principal Dawson Bradford the main reason behind the sale of the stud was due to the family's change of focus toward reducing workload.

"We are hoping we have our last year of shearing this year with the Easy-Care shedders and these will be our main focus," Mr Bradford said.

"We have ramped up the Easy-Care shedders flock throughout the past couple of years and are running 1000 ewes.

"Running the two major flocks was getting very difficult, so we decided to sell the Poll Dorsets and go with the easy labour input option."

Mr Bradford and his wife Greta founded the Hillcroft Farms Poll Dorset stud in 1972, after they purchased the best ewes available from across Australia to form the nucleus of their flock.

These ewes were then amalgamated with Mr Bradford's father's flock, following his death in 1977, and since that time the Bradfords have used only the best genetics available in an effort to produce high performing offspring.

Mr Bradford said the aim of the stud had been to focus on muscling as the number one selection criteria, followed by growth.

"This selection criteria, is different to most studs which focus on growth firstly," he said.

The stud was one of the very first adopters of Lambplan, using it in 1990 when it became available.

"I have always had trouble coming to terms with the whole show ring side of things and that is why we adopted Lambplan so quickly," Mr Bradford said.

"Lambplan gave us an objective way of recording genetic performance.

"While we have kept selecting objectively through the years we have still kept an eye on our structure."

This selection has paid off for the stud.

It has been at the top of Lambplan since the late 1990s for growth and muscling, and its performance in these areas has continued to improve.

The high performance levels achieved by the stud have seen it sell genetics throughout Australia and internationally to New Zealand, China, Malaysia, Canada, the US, the UK, South America, the Falkland Islands and Mauritius.

It has recently sold upward of 300 Poll Dorset rams a year both at auction and privately.

These sales included a WA record price for a Poll Dorset ram sold at auction when the stud sold a sire for $20,000 at the 2011 Perth Royal Show ram sale, and a ram lamb with +14.6 post weaning weight and an outstanding post weaning eye muscle depth of +4.8 for $10,000 to Lambpro last December.

"Both the Curlew Creek and Lambpro studs have a high portion of our genetics in their flocks, so I think our ewes will blend in well in both and further enhance these flocks," Mr Bradford said.

Buyers Collyn Garnett and Tom Bull were attracted to Hillcroft Farms because of the stud's high performing genetics.

The Garnett family, who run 400 stud ewes after establishing their stud in 2009, are no strangers to Hillcroft Farms genetics.

The Invermay stud they purchased to establish Curlew Creek was based on Hillcroft Farms bloodlines and they have purchased Hillcroft Farms genetics since.

Lambpro stud principal Tom Bull, who has been using Hillcroft Farms genetics since 2002, said the stud's sheep had proven to be the highest eye muscled and best eating quality sheep, which was extremely rare given the negative correlation between the two traits.

"Their marbling is of extreme interest," he said.

Lambpro sells more than 1400 rams annually, of which 560 are terminal and the rest maternal.

This year it will lamb more than 1500 Poll Dorset ewes.