Calcookara Stud

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It’s a great time to be in sheep!!!! With fuel prices and supply spiralling out of control along with the fertiliser pr...
01/04/2026

It’s a great time to be in sheep!!!! With fuel prices and supply spiralling out of control along with the fertiliser prices and at the same time our grain prices falling it’s hard to get excited about the massive financial commitment of sowing our crops.
Wool is going well and recently we averaged over $2,500/bale then this week we sent a line of whethers to TFI and averaged $313/head. They averaged 28.7kg and yielded at around 45% which is pretty good for a merino.
Paddock run until the last 8 weeks when we put them into containment to round them up a tad.
The lightest one at 22kg still brought $230 with the heaviest coming in at 37.5kg was a whopping $$382.50.
Crazy times 💪

Please bear with me on this one it’s worth it. As we keep saying the Cowell flats is some of the most marginal farmland ...
30/03/2026

Please bear with me on this one it’s worth it.
As we keep saying the Cowell flats is some of the most marginal farmland in the state. We tell everyone that when it rained for 40 days and 40 nights Cowell recorded 10 points.
With an annual rainfall of around 250mm and usually around 50mm of that being summer rain it makes it difficult for growing crops. Then add in the large areas of calcareous soils that just don’t hold moisture along with salt scold just to make it more challenging.
The worst part of this is onion w**d thrives here and it doesn’t matter how much paraquat you throw at it it just keeps coming back along with blanket w**d that you can kill it just takes good timing and at least 4L/ha of glyphosate!!!! For those unfortunate enough to know, onion w**d is extremely hardy and doesn’t seem to have a dormant period however it’s actually a poor competitor so doesn’t like much competition.
After having continuous failed cereal crops on 200ha of the worst of this country we decided enough was enough and started doing our homework. I said to Jane if we can grow onion w**d and blanket w**d during summer surely we can grow something useful.
We’re lucky enough to have a client at Keith who grows Lucerne and started quizzing Bruce about growing it on this paddock and he assured me that if we could get it established it would grow.
So in 2023 at the end of our seeding program I took the risk of a 200ha trial!!!!
We had a reasonable start on it but the rain cut off in late August which is exactly when you need the rain to get the plants established for the upcoming summer. By the end of harvest in December I’d put it down to experience and conceded defeat, only to get 100mm over 3 days of glorious rain in late December. I soon found out that my defeat had turned into triumph. The Lucerne that I thought was cactus bounced into life and filled the paddock. What a relief!!!! This post is really to show you how tough this plant is so bare with me here!!!!
2024 comes along and gives us a miserable 5.5 inches for the year with no summer rain. Leaving this 200ha not bare but certainly not eye catching either. I’m thinking the Lucerne must be thinning itself out by now surely.
2025 and still no rain until late May, as we all remember and then only just enough to get things set up for spring without any to spare. Another dry summer with a genuine bit of heat and we’re thinking that the Lucerne has definitely taken a hit by now.
Then enter 100mm in March 2026 and
BANG 💥 just when you thought it must be dead it couldn’t be more alive!!!!
Thanks Bruce it’s been quite a journey so far and we can’t wait to see what this stuff can do in a reasonable year.
And by the way, since having the Lucerne in the paddock we haven’t had to spray for onion w**d!!!!!!
$200/acre country to this!!!!!!
You put a price on it because I can’t 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

30/03/2026

Well I can’t remember getting a a season break this early, always a bit sceptical. But with the follow up rain received there’s a good chance this grass will get through to winter rain. These young “natural breached “M/June 2025 drop rams making the most of it, showing extreme width of spine , true early growth with white wools still, after weeks of high humidity and warm weather. Not 1 fly strike without any chemical weapons.
Interested? See us at Turretfield sire evaluation in June and Keith field day 22nd July !

This is how you turn one and a half days of shearing into a week of frustration Mid March is the time we shear the previ...
29/03/2026

This is how you turn one and a half days of shearing into a week of frustration Mid March is the time we shear the previous years lambs which of course means weighing their fleeces. With a great early rain we were just starting to get a good green pick but as most of us know if you want more rain then just book in to shear!!!
With a bullish forecast we filled the shed with as many as we could.
Monday morning was already wet so let the remainder of the sheep out of the yards. By about 5:15 we had 350 ewe lambs done and 60 rams. By the way still raining!!
We attempted to truck the rest of the dry rams from the shed next door but by now the rain was the heaviest it’s been all day so we no longer had dry sheep by the time we got them there.
After 4 days of foggy misty weather and 47mm of rain the remainder of the rams were still wet but everyone was keen to get them shorn and back to the paddock. So in a first for us they were shorn wet.
We didn’t start until 2pm Friday to give them the best chance to dry and finished at 6:30 that night!!
By the end of it there wasn’t a spare spot to put a fleece on the shed floor as we had to dry them before putting it in the press.
The team from Kimba contracting did a great job as usual but I hope we don’t have to do this again for everyone’s sake!!
Should certainly make for an easier lambing this year though with 112mm for the last month 💪💪💪 bring it on!!!!!!
Remember 10 months of age and 6 months wool growth here!!!!

Time is running out fast people!! Last chance to lock it in.Should make for a very entertaining evening. Yabmanna’s Beat...
11/03/2026

Time is running out fast people!! Last chance to lock it in.
Should make for a very entertaining evening.
Yabmanna’s Beatles the
Bienke Brothers are back in town for the occasion💥💥
Get in before you can’t!!!
Complimentary bus leaving the commercial hotel and returning to Cowell later in the night but make sure you book it!!
Some great auction items available on the night.
I double dare you!!!

Last week we had our classing guru Bill Walker here to do the first classing on the 25 drop. After a good lambing, espec...
04/03/2026

Last week we had our classing guru Bill Walker here to do the first classing on the 25 drop.
After a good lambing, especially for the season given Jane and I decided to take the obvious culls out of the ram lamb proportion in January to ease the need to feed.
All in all it was a very good day for us, we thought as we are now starting to see some really well balanced sheep in the figures whilst still holding our quality.
I keep saying that’it is our duty as seed stock producers to make sure that we are improving every year’. This goes for quality and figures which sounds easy but I can guarantee you it is not. That’s why we are very picky with which rams we buy and are happy to pay good money to achieve this. But the same emphasis must also go into our ewe portion to get the ultimate results.
We thank Bill for the work he does for us and the input and information he gives for us to go forward. Not to mention the friendship! He has been an important part of our operation for 26 years this year.
Enjoy the photos of the day.

While we had the young ewes home in the yards for muscle scanning we decided to keep them there for an extra day and sid...
17/02/2026

While we had the young ewes home in the yards for muscle scanning we decided to keep them there for an extra day and side sample them before walking them back to where they came from.
When side sampling them we measure the length of staple so that we don’t have to do it while shearing.
These girls are carrying just on 4.5mths wool and most of them have between 57-70mm already and one family standing out at a very consistent 65-80mm. And they look like they are going to cut very well which can be an issue with most sheep that punch that much staple out. I look forward to crunching their data after shearing.
Sadly we were under the pump to get the job done so photos were not really taken but they will be when we class them with Bill Walker in a couple of weeks.
Lots to look forward to hopefully.

17/02/2026

GET AROUND THIS FREEEE EVENT AND HELP SUPPORT THIS AWESOME REGION!!! ❤️

The Cowell Pyrotechnics Event is a free community event that is held annually, it attracts locals and also visitors from the wider Eyre Peninsula.

The event is held at the Cowell Foreshore area, it starts at 4pm with markets along Thompson Drive. FREE live music will commence at 6pm by Adelaide’s ‘The Smooth Party Band’ who will also have karaoke on the night. FUN!!!! 🎤🎤🎤

Cowells largest fireworks display will commence around 9pm, fireworks are let off on the Cowell Jetty and the best place to view the fireworks are the Cowell Marina or Foreshore area. 🎆🎆🎆

The Cowell Waterpark will be on during the event and visitors are welcome to use all the public facilities at the foreshore during the event, including he skate park, basketball court, playground and bouncy pillow.

The Cowell Pyrotechnics Night is supported by the State and Federal Governments’ Algal Bloom Summer Plan, funded through the South Australian Tourism Commission’s Algal Bloom Event Support Fund.

District Council of Franklin Harbour




Last week we had our 25 drop lambs muscle scanned. This has always been done by Ian Bradtke but unfortunately due to inj...
15/02/2026

Last week we had our 25 drop lambs muscle scanned. This has always been done by Ian Bradtke but unfortunately due to injury Ian was unable to make it. Firstly we wish Ian a speedy recovery and thank him for his efforts over the years doing this job for us. Our journey with Ian started back many years ago when he was running his merino stud then employed him to do our in shed wool testing with his lazerline testing machine to test every ewes fleece as they were shorn. Fast forward to now with the muscle scanning. We also wish you a relaxing retirement Ian and look forward to seeing you around the traps still at sheep events no doubt.
Enter and welcome to Ian’s successor Sophie Reynolds.
Soph did a great job and will do well going forward no doubt.
A few photos starting with the blast from the past.
Cheers

A couple of weeks ago we just managed to dodge the heat and shore our ewes Normally it would have been done in September...
09/02/2026

A couple of weeks ago we just managed to dodge the heat and shore our ewes
Normally it would have been done in September to coincide with our 6 monthly shearing, however due to the market being very ordinary at that time and due to the information we had received from a few of our industry sources saying that, ‘wool will lift considerably towards the end of 25 and possibly lift further into the new year’ we decided to hold off until January hoping to value add to the fleece that was already growing on their back. Making it a 10 month fleece!!
Thankfully so far the information we received and passed on to our clients has come to fruition. Whilst we are yet to sell the wool it’s looking like that decision should pay off handsomely!
For one of the toughest lambing seasons I can remember, the ewes did a fantastic job giving us 105% lambing and we only had 1 bale of tender so we can’t really complain. The tensile strength may be down a bit when we get the tests back but I’m not going to whinge considering.
Some of the fleeces were between 7 & 8kg skirted and up to 125mm long!!!!Sadly I didn’t get a lot of photos but here’s a few I did take.
Hopefully this will be a year that we and our clients can make some serious hay while the sun shines!!!!!!
Enjoy

Jane and I are on the committee for this event. If you would like anymore information please give us a call. Cheers
25/01/2026

Jane and I are on the committee for this event. If you would like anymore information please give us a call.
Cheers

Address

1491 Ferns Road
Cowell, SA
5602

Telephone

+61427285039

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