Woolgrower hits his Merino target

William Luff had come to Australia as a convict and worked for the Macarthur family at Camden Park, before his penal servitude was filled and he was pardoned.

William and his wife Katherine (nee Devlin) had seven children before he was unfortunately drowned in the 1852 flood, leaving his widow to carry on.

Bill Luff is very proud of his ancestor, with William's connection to one of the original flocks of Merino sheep and his attachment to the land.

And in partnership with his wife Debbie, sons William and James, Mr Luff continues to focus on the Merino sheep has a mainstay of the families pastoral enterprise.

"Sheep and wool have been very good for my family, and it is our biggest enterprise alongside our Angus cattle and prime lambs," he said.

"I worked as a wool classer and I used to dream of growing 200 bales when I left school, but we will get close to 300 bales this year.

The family aggregation based at Cotway, Adjungbilly, extends to over 2800ha, including the original selection made by William Luff, and properties which had been in the hands of various family members and since repurchased.

"We owe it all to Katherine, she was the one who carried on raising seven children after William drowned," Bill Luff said.

"And with our grandchildren here, they are the seventh generation of our family here on the land, a proud record."

The flock of 12,500 Merino sheep is based on classed ewes joined to Merino rams bred by Rick and Jill Baldwin at Bundilla, Young, while the classed seconds are joined to Poll Dorset rams based on Valley Vista genetics.

They also join 900 Reiland-blood Angus breeders each year and trade cattle depending upon the season.

The ewes are classed annually by Orange-based independent classer Jason Southwell.

"In our high rainfall country, around 800mm, we want to breed plain-bodied sheep, with long stapled soft and white wool," Bill Luff said.

"We concentrate on wool quality but we are also keen on high fertility, and the Baldwin family at Bundilla have long been focused on high fertility in their breeding program.

"But we also have to buy rams with the right wool which suits our high rainfall pasture improved country, and we take a lot of notice of the figures including fleece weight, comfort factor and weaning percentage supplied with each ram.

"We join for five weeks and we take out the dry ewes - I think they have been the ones holding back our lambing percentage, because it has lifted since we started scanning."

Mr Luff said the last lamb marking revealed a 100pc return across the entire ewes joined.

For the past three years, the Luff family have been aligned with the Responsible Wool Standard, which 'aims to improve the welfare of sheep and the land they graze on."

"We stopped mulesing three years ago because we thought it was going to happen anyway," Mr Luff said.

"We were being offered a pretty good deal, and the requirements meant that we were restricted from buying mulesed sheep or rams.

"But this wet summer has really tested that program and our sheep with flystrike and worms.

"It has been a very trying time for our sheep, I much prefer a dry and hot summer to clean up the worms, and ease the foot issues."

Mr Luff said the debate over mulesing is a tricky one, but the future for non-mulesed wool will depend entirely on the grower being paid a substantial premium for his product.

"The price will decide if non-mulesing will continue," he said.

"We can see that the market is demanding it, but I think we need to be guaranteed a premium of around $12 to $15 a head to make it worthwhile."

Shearing in February, the production figures for the entire flock indicate a micron range of 19-20, with an average fleece weight of six and half kilos.

"We join our maidens at 15 months which has allowed them to grow out in our country which can be very tough on young sheep," Mr Luff said.