The Davy family of Wellstead win WAMMCO’s Producer of the Month award for January

The Davy family who farm at Wellstead were awarded the winners of the WA Meat Marketing Co-operative’s producer of the month competition for January. Their draft of 180 Merino cross White Suffolk lambs produced at Blackboy Hills Farm, were slaughtered at WAMMCO Katanning on January 20 and averaged 21.46 kg and returned $138.91/head including skin to reach 97.78 points. The Davy family started out in farming as dairy and cattle farmers at Redmond, near Albany. It was a turbulent time for markets and seasons and the family was successful in their application for one of the early conditional purchase blocks issued at Wellstead in 1967. A brand new 60m x 20m raised-board shearing shed on their property now serves as a sign of future faith in the sheep industry for Robert and Shane Davy and their families. “It feels good to be investing in positive infrastructure for a change instead of trying to keep up with endless demands for machinery and other major farm inputs,” Robert said. They expect to have the new shed ready for work before the end of the year as Shane and his small workforce work their way through the final stages. “We have done much of the work ourselves and expect to complete the project at a price well below what it would be if we started today,” Shane said. “At the same time, we will be counting on processors to correct the serious slide in both lamb and mutton prices we began to see in global markets last year, to restore lagging producer confidence in the industry.” Under a family partnership, Robert, his brother Richard and his father Geoff became early supporters of Jim Shepherd’s Australian Merino Society in the early 1970s and at their peak, they were running 21,000 Merinos with an annual wool clip of more than 500 bales. The original family partnership at Wellstead was based on a 1200ha property named Windi Windi with Robert managing the sheep and cropping business and his brother Richard and father Geoff using their dairy skills as the basis for a substantial cattle breeding business. An allegiance to Merinos continued under Robert’s management when the AMS shut down causing him to redirect his buying interest to the stud Merino industry. For about 35 years, the family’s Merino flock had been based on Woodyarrup blood stock both from the stud itself and from Bob Bairstow’s original Kalgan Downs stud. Wool has maintained a prominent place under the present family partnership because of the extra $25 or so per head it continues to contribute each year. “With lamb prices well down from more than $8 per kg over the previous two years, the production of up to 400 bales of wool each year each from our self-replacing flock of 7000 ewes is vital to help us to make up the difference,” Robert said. “We have also found that maintaining both spring and autumn shearing and our policy of mating about one third of our ewe flock to White Suffolk rams from the Hyde family’s Kohat stud, assists us to get stock off the property quickly at a time when wool is also bringing some good prices.” Like all producers, Robert and his wife Carolyn and son Shane and his wife Lauren and four children are casting anxious eyes to the season ahead. “Last year’s bumper season continues to deliver extremely heavy lambs and mutton and some handy summer rains have triggered our significant areas of Kikuyu which we have committed to assist Steve Meerwald’s initiative to harvest Kikuyu seed as a commercial operation,” Robert said. “We brought Kikuyu runners with us from the family dairy farm at Redmond and have watched in awe as the plant spread, to protect large areas of our land from erosion, and helped to aerate the soil. “The bonus was a reliable burst of green feed after coastal storms.” Robert said he and Shane had increased their reserves of feed grains and silage and were holding in reserve a feedlot capable of finishing up to 1600 lambs if seasonal problems developed. As serious advocates for sensible farming conservation, the Davy family have introduced many new technologies including recent use of a Reefinator — while also investing in off-farm interests including extensive farm and transport contracting, a farm-stay caravan park and a wildflower production businesses. Robert has also experienced a term of interest in corporate farming, learning the pitfalls and collecting a few assets along the way. The family investment in farmland is currently set at 6000ha — well up from their original 1200 original CP block. Ready access to the beautiful section of South Coast was another bonus relatively few other farmers can enjoy.