Terry Walters
TERRY WALTERS
“I’ve been at Smedley for 16 years and it’s a privilege to be part of a unique operation making an impact on the lives of so many young New Zealanders.
The training arm of our business costs Smedley around $240,000 per year to run, and ensuring the farm is profitable is key. Two thirds of the gross farm income is from sheep and we need to get that just right.
Around eight years ago I put a recommendation to the board that we move to Kelso Maternals from Romneys. Now all our breeding ewes – 15,000 (including hoggets) of the station’s 28,500 stock units – are Kelso.
Our purebred Romneys were lambing between 120% and 130%. Even with the recent dry autumns we’ve lifted this to 142% – 152%, ewes to ram. The profitability of our sheep enterprise depends on more than just lambing percentages – live weight gain, weaning weight, weight of lamb weaned/ha, stocking rates and the ability to mate hoggets are obviously all key – and on all these counts the Kelso is ahead.
We’ve reduced ewe numbers and now have more hoggets to the rams, which is adding screeds to profitability.
Ram selection also plays a part in the senior cadets’ training. One of the highlights is each second year cadet choosing a Kelso Maternal ram based on all the characteristics we’re after at Smedley.”