PETER Wallis (pictured) has always had a passion for sheep breeding, and the success of his Glenlea Park stud near Pinnaroo is testament to that passion.
Two years ago he sold a ram, lovingly named ‘Smithy’ after Australian cricketer Steve Smith, for $100,000 at the Adelaide Ram Sale, and in 2021 recorded his most successful year yet at a number of ram sales across the state.
It’s been a long time coming.
“Glenlea Park was founded by my dad Glen Wallis in 1964, and I came home to the farm in 1992, and took over the stud in about 1997,” Mr Wallis said.
“In the early days we were a Collinsville daughter stud blood line, but when I came home on the farm we employed Bill Walker as a classer and we shifted our genetics a bit more to some different bloodlines: Charinga, Wallalloo Park and a little bit of Leahcim.
“In the last 10 to 15 years we have been a little bit more of a closed stud, only introducing the odd ram here and there.
“There’s been a lot of changes.
When I came home, like all the studs around here we were only selling to local farmers - only about 30 to 40 rams a year, and all straight out of the paddock.”
When the district’s farmers made a push towards continuous cropping, Mr Wallis said it was clear he would have to attract new clients.
“We started shedding 10 to 15 to be able to take them to field days to present them well,” he said.
So we started with 10 to 15 and we slowly built up to the point that now were are shedding all of our rams, and selling 200.
“Our clients now come from Tasmania, through to Western Australia and everywhere between.”
But, back to Smithy.
“Smithy was bred out of a ram that we bred called Glenlea Park 881, and he was out of a very good ewe that is now in our embryo transfer program, a terrific mother,” Mr Wallis said.
“I suppose in 2019 it became evident in July that year the we had something a little bit special.
“He was probably the best wool sheep that I have ever bred, and he was probably, at that point of time, almost the best meat sheep we had ever bred.
“To get the combination of the two is very rare.
“A good wool sheep is normally a little bit smaller and finer in the bone (whereas) if you breed good meat sheep it is normally at the expense of the wool.”
Mr Wallis said Smithy was almost never put up for sale.
“In other years, we would have kept that ram as a worker for ourselves,” he said.
“But we had slowly worked our way up the ram sale catalogue in Adelaide, and we wanted to continue to offer something really good to keep ourselves up there, so it was decided to sell him.
“We keep 50 per cent semen marketing rights on all rams we sell, and we also kept a right to collect from Smithy.
“So we can collect from him anytime for our own use.
“And if we sell any semen from that ram we get 50 per cent of the proceeds, and the purchaser gets 50 per cent.”
Mr Wallis said one part of his business’ focus had given him the edge.
“I think if there is a trade secret, I think the merino industry as a whole has been guilty of only focusing on 50 per cent of the genetic traits,” he said.
By focusing equally on both sides, you can double your genetic gain, so I think, if there is a secret, that is it.
“We are very strong on the genetics on both sides of the family tree.”
Mr Wallis said topping a ram like Smithy would be difficult.
“My focus is on breeding a better sheep, and regardless of price, that is where I get the most satisfaction,” Mr Wallis said.
“It was very satisfying to breed Smithy because he was such a good sheep, and how we can top that is to breed a better one.
“That is not going to be that easy, but I don’t ever say I can’t.”
Mr Wallis said while the semen side of stud breeding was not large, it could still be lucrative.
“If we bred another Smithy, or a ram better than Smithy, we would probably keep him,” he said.
“We would display him at various field days and other stud breeders might look at that ram and decide ‘we would like to use that in our flock’… so we could offer semen for sale.
“We have a number of semen sires, rams that we have kept, and studs ring us up and order, you know, 50 doses, and pay $50 per ewe dose for that.
“If you can get a ram that is highly sought after, you can make a lot of money out of semen sales.
“But as a percentage of the industry it is very small, because everyone wants the top one or two rams in Australia.”
Mr Wallis said while 2021 had had its challenges, it had become his stud’s most successful year yet – despite being unable to attend sales such as the Australian Wool and Sheep Show at Bendigo and the Dubbo sales that were both cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions.
“We have done things a little bit differently this year,” he said.
“We have sold three rams at an online auction plus only forum.
“We sold one for $29,500, one for $9500, and one for $8500.
“They were the rams we were going to take to Dubbo, so that was a bit of an experiment, but I would say it worked.
“All three of those rams were bought and bid on by people who had never seen them, so you get a bit nervous because you don’t want to mis-describe them, or lead them to believe they are a better sheep than what they are.
“We offered 165 rams at our August on property sale, and we averaged $3560, which was a state record for about two weeks until Moorundie had theirs and knocked us off.
“That was terrific as we were worried about it leading up to the event, because we couldn’t have any interstate clients there, but it went very well.
“Our previous best on property average was $2960, so we beat that by about $600.”
The Adelaide Ram Sales were again a success for Glenlea Park.
“We sold five rams in Adelaide,” Mr Wallis said.
“We topped the averages at the Adelaide Ram Sales, selling the top price ram for $56,000, and we averaged over the five $21,400.”
So what does Mr Wallis look for in a sheep?
“Increasingly I have been looking for constitution,” he said.
“As a foremost requirement a sheep has to survive and thrive in paddock conditions, so it has to be good on its feet, and it has to have the ability to do well in difficult conditions.
“Aside from that I think the skin of an animal is really important.
“Its growth rate is determined by its skin… if it has tight and flat skin it can’t grow.
If the skin is not right, it doesn’t produce enough wool, and the wool is not good quality.
“When you take into account growth rate, wool quality and quantity, and also fertility – which is also impacted a bit – I think the skin is pretty critical.”
Mr Wallis said he feels he is unable to take all the credit for the success of his stud, where currently he mates about 1000 ewes a year, and has about 500 ram lambs.
“The sheep that I was able to start with, Dad had got them to a certain level, and we were probably underexposed in those early years,” he said.
“I think we had better sheep than what we were being rewarded for in those times.
“My dad fostered the passion in sheep breeding in me, and without him none of it would have happened.
“And anyone who is in stud breeding would understand that my family, my wife Marianne and two little kids, make a lot of sacrifices, and if they were not prepared to make those sacrifices we would not have achieved what we have achieved in the stud industry.”