| 57 They added a further 382ha to Wether Hill in 2020. MEAT & WOOL » Wether Hill Farming “Corey and I still help each other out with things like machinery and helping with shearing. I sell stock to him – he does trade lambs, so I sell winter lambs to him and beef calves in autumn.” The Wether Hill Angus stud, founded on cows from Fairlie’s Meadowslea Angus, is focussed on breeding moderately framed cattle that thrive in harder hill country. “We have 75 stud cows and 75 commercial cows. The cows are doing the job around the hill blocks, living on tussock country and cleaning the cardboard up. They don’t get any preferential treatment. We’ve had a pretty good winter with not too much rain since the start of July, so the farm is tracking well and we are confident there will be good demand for the bulls we’ll be selling this spring to meet the needs of both beef and dairy buyers.” Linton and Jayden also run 2600 mainly Romney ewes and 630 hoggets. The quality of their sheep owes much to the genetic influence of the Wairere sheep stud. Linton says Wairere sheep rank highly on shifting ability and resilience and are also some of the best sheep to shear. Linton and Corey ran a shearing business together for almost 20 years. Linton still rates wool as high quality natural product, but says wool prices continue to be disappointingly low. At Wether Hill, that’s driving a jump towards Wiltshire genetics to breed hardy sheep that will naturally shed their fleece in the spring. “Unfortunately, at the moment, wool prices are still not where they need to be to make all the effort of shearing worthwhile.” It is a busy life for Linton and Jayden, who often does beef and dairy work off-farm as well as lending a hand at Wether Hill. At the time of writing, Jayden was set to begin calf rearing in August.. Wether Hill Angus Breeding moderate framed meaty cattle off tougher country For Viewing or further info Contact Linton Palmer Phone: 021 02251330 | Email: wether.hill@xtra.co.nz
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