Not all that long ago, mixed farming was standard practice on broadacre properties across Australia.<\/p>\n
Most farmers ran sheep alongside their crops, as their families had done for more than a century.<\/p>\n
But in recent decades, there has been a huge move away from sheep, in favour of more profitable cropping.<\/p>\n
Since 1990, the national sheep flock has declined from 170 million to 74 million today, a drop of almost 100 million in three decades.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Profitable crops such as lentils have accelerated the transition from sheep. (ABC Rural: Angus Verley)<\/p>\n
Less work, more money<\/p>\n
Tim Rethus’s family has farmed near Horsham, Victoria, since the 1940s, and he has not had a single sheep on his property for 25 years.<\/p>\n
He said it did not make financial sense to keep running sheep on prime cropping country.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tim Rethus runs modern machinery on his large-scale cropping operation. (ABC Rural: Angus Verley)<\/p>\n
“Sixty bales of wool in the 90s was worth one paddock of wheat in profit,” Mr Rethus said.<\/p>\n
“It was a lot of work for very small gain, probably splitting the labour half-half [between sheep and crops], but not getting anywhere near the return.”<\/p>\n
Mr Rethus invested in the latest cropping technology and his sheds are brimming with modern machinery worth millions of dollars.<\/p>\n
“All the [cropping] equipment is slowly getting closer to automation,” he said.<\/p>\n
“They’re adding things onto machines to take away some of the human interventions required and turning the operator into more of a supervisor.”<\/p>\n
Sheep just a sideline\u00a0<\/p>\n
At nearby Natimuk, 19-year-old Olivia Sudholz does not mind working with livestock, but her family’s farm has gone from strength to strength off the back of crops, not sheep.<\/p>\n
The Sudholz enterprise was once largely a sheep operation, but now, sheep make up only about 10 per cent of the business.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Olivia Sudholz will spend plenty of time in the tractor this harvest. (ABC Rural: Angus Verley)<\/p>\n
“I think we might have less sheep in the future. My father is very interested in expanding our \u2026 cropping,” she said.<\/p>\n
Ms Sudholz has a keen interest in the business of farming and says she is willing to change with the times.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“If your father and grandfather have been running livestock for most of their life and you’ve decided to change, that’s OK,” she said.<\/p>\n
“You have to do what the business really needs sometimes.”<\/p>\n
A different approach<\/p>\n
Not all farmers are giving up on sheep.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trent Carter, who farms at Marnoo in Victoria’s east Wimmera, is as committed as ever to sheep.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Carter family has invested heavily in sheep-handling infrastructure. (ABC Rural: Angus Verley)<\/p>\n
He grows about 2,400 hectares of harvestable crops and uses the rest of his 3,400-hectare farm to run sheep and grow fodder to feed them.<\/p>\n
Mr Carter said his Merino enterprises and cropping operation complemented each other.<\/p>\n
“In this area it’s absolutely fantastic having a dual income stream, [so] sheep are always going to have a place here on this property,” he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Carter said some people were deterred from running sheep because of the labour involved, but he believes investment in shearing sheds, yards and handling equipment was needed.<\/p>\n
“There’s no difference from a decent set of yards to a decent tractor, it’s enticing that younger generation to work in your industry,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sheep are an important part of the Carter family’s operation. (ABC Rural: Angus Verley)<\/p>\n
A common anecdote about the next generation of farmers is that they would prefer to drive machinery than work in a shearing shed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But that is not the case for everyone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Oliver Moore, who studies at Longerenong Agricultural College and works on his family farm, wants to make sheep a bigger part of their business.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Oliver Moore enjoys working with sheep, but says many of his classmates do not. (ABC Rural: Angus Verley)<\/p>\n
He said he enjoyed all aspects of running sheep.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It gives a bit of diversity for an income and you’re doing something different every day,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I love roustabouting, helping out the shearers, sweeping the wool, picking up the fleeces and do a bit of skirting of the fleeces as well,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He acknowledged many of his Longerenong classmates did not feel the same way.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I don’t know too many people who like sheep,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“But I’m thinking livestock will play a key part in this farm.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not all that long ago, mixed farming was standard practice on broadacre properties across Australia. Most farmers ran…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6634,64,63,27932,47449,13330,77403,186346,129041,186347,25656,105],"class_list":["post-333545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-agriculture","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-change","tag-crops","tag-farming","tag-grain","tag-land-use","tag-lentils","tag-mixed-farming","tag-sheep","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}