8 | Good chance to compare your sheep In 2020, Corey and wife Kylie acquired the family’s 100-hectare farm located just north of Levin. Karen Phelps The Royal Show held in Levin this year was a big deal for the region and Corey Prouting was proud to stand alongside his grandparents Gilbert and Diana Timms who were the chief sheep stewards of the event. “A lot of people ask why bother with showing sheep? I think it’s a good chance to compare your sheep to other breeders and see where you can improve and with 350 sheep shown this year it was a good turnout,” says Corey whose sheep took out the Champion Southdown Ewe, Champion Two Tooth Ewe and All Breed Champion Ewe titles. In 2020, Corey and wife Kylie acquired the family’s 100-hectare farm located just north of Levin. The property has been in the family’s possession since the 1920s, with Corey representing the fifth generation to manage the farm. His great-grandparents primarily raised Southdowns on the land. In 1943, Corey’s great grandmother established the stud, which she later entrusted to Corey’s care in 2009 when at the time it was a small flock of around 40, that today has swelled to 180 breeding stud ewes. According to Corey, Southdowns have several appealing characteristics: good temperaments and excellent growth rates. The breed is known for producing lambs with low birth weights, which significantly reduces lambing complications. Additionally, Corey highlights the breed’s rapid growth rates. This quality is particularly advantageous for commercial farmers, as it enables them to wean lambs sired by Southdown rams earlier and send them to the works more quickly. RURAL PEOPLE » CDG Prouting Corey sells rams each November / December by private treaty and, in addition to the breed’s general qualities, is focusing on breeding for good solid muscling and animals that have good length. “They are a terminal breed so it’s all about the growth rate. They are also high fertility and we are looking at worm resistance as that’s become a real issue for farmers.” He says Southdowns “don’t mind the dry” making them ideal for regions such as Hawkes Bay. With his grandparents farming nearby Corey often heads there to help out when needed and they also share stock across the farms with his grandparents running other stud sheep – Cheviots, Polled Dorsets, Perendales and Romneys. Corey and Kylie’s farming operation also includes 30 stud Hereford cows, which are bred for the dairy market in conjunction with grandparents who have 50 stud cows. The Proutings also have around 250 commercial ewes and rear around 100 calves each year to 12 months old to sell as stores and buy in 1000 lambs each year and fatten them. Kylie works as a schoolteacher at Poroutawhao School and the couple has two children: Jack, 3 and Matilda, 1. Corey says he takes them out on the farm as much as he can to instil a passion for farming in the next generation. Other focuses for Corey include fencing off waterways and planting trees to leave the farm in a better place than when he took it over. He has been planting 1000 native trees each year for around six years through the Horizons Regional Council scheme. Off farm interests have always been important for Corey’s work-life balance and he is heavily involved in the hockey coaching scene. Highlights of his career have seen Corey named the New Zealand Community Hockey Coach of the Year, coaching the local Horowhenua Under 13 boys team to win the national under 13 title in 2019 and coaching the NHL women’s side where a lot of the players went on to become Black Sticks. “On the farm I am by myself and farming can be challenging sometimes so going to hockey is a good way to socialise and relax. You can’t control much with farming like the weather but with sport you can control your destiny a bit more.” Visit us at: 1370 Mairoa Rd, RD1, Piopio 3971 Phone Neil 07 877 8801 or Dan 021 042 5660 Bred on big hill country for: Strong Constitution - High Fertility - Good Wool Quality Flock No. 532 Sires facial eczema tolerance tested - SIL recorded
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