Grandfather Athol Anderson was considered the “black sheep” in his family and left a comfortable property in Katanning for a largely uncleared block near Kojonup. He and his new wife Mary went on to have a very long and happy life together and raised seven children while developing the property in Western Australia’s Great Southern region. He bred sheep, and planted crops using horses and hand-drawn ploughs. Athol was a forward thinking man who began utilising fleece measurements and body weights in his ram breeding way back in the 1960s rather than rely solely on subjective visual assessment.
Athol’s son Alan, also an innovator, continued to strive for excellence in ram breeding, embracing objective measurement and genetics. He was a contributor to the Sheep Genetics Australia pilot project in 2002 because he could see that using science to qualify and quantify traits and their heritability had the potential to more rapidly elevate productivity of the whole flock.
Lynley, the third generation, took over the management of the farm in 2004 and is enthusiastic about breeding more profitable sheep.
In September 2013 Lynley was one of three finalists in the Australian Farmer of the Year Awards in the Wool Producer category, and in 2018 a recipient of the Syngenta Growth Awards in the Production category. These awards recognise productivity in the context of sustainability and community engagement.
Lynley believes stud rams should be raised under commercial conditions so the best performing rams in this system are truly the more profitable.
Onfarm, 5000 ewes are mated annually including ewe lambs, achieving a lambing percentage in 2022 of 121% lambs to ewes mated.
The farm also seeds 800ha to canola, barley, wheat, oat and lupin crops.
Two seasonal creeks meander through the 1200 hectare home farm and a constant battle is waged against increasing salinity on the creek flats. In the last 50 years the Andersons have planted over 500 000 trees for salinity control as well as shade and shelter for our animals (and for the bees!).
The Andersons have an Environmental Management System in place, an RWS accreditatation (Responsible Wool Standard), and a biosecurity management plan, as they strive for best practice in all areas of farming.
