Glenlea Park Poll Merino stud to remain in SA hands
After an expressions of interest campaign that generated Australia-wide interest, one of the nation's most influential Poll Merino studs, Glenlea Park, is remaining in the Upper South East.
New owners, the Murdoch family have recently purchased a property at Keith which will be the stud's new home.
They have decades of experience running the respected North Cowie stud at Warooka and say it was "too good an opportunity not to explore".the chance to buy the 60-year-old stud.
The sale includes more than 1100 mature stud ewes (ranging from 2018 drop to 2023 drop) along with 475 ram lambs and 475 ewe lambs, which are April to June drop.
Also included was an inventory of semen and all the intellectual property.
Joe Murdoch says North Cowie has had success with several Glenlea Park stud sires in the past decade and had enormous respect for their sheep.
"They are our type of sheep with those rich lustrous wools with good skins and good doing ability that can go into the high rainfall area or the pastoral zones," he said.
Mr Murdoch says a move to the South East had been on the cards for several years as his passion in farming was running sheep not continuous cropping which had taken over the YP.
"I really like Merino sheep, they are the ultimate dual-purpose breed," he said.
"In a commercial operation as wethers you can get them out as quick as any crossbred but they still have the wool component that you can get decent money for your wool as well "
The North Cowie breeding flock will also be relocated to the SE but will be run separately from the Glenlea Park flock.
The Murdochs will still hold a Yorke Peninsula sale for their long-standing clients with the rams trucked back to Warooka a few months before the sale each year.
They are already planning their first Glenlea Park on-property sale in August next year at Keith and expect to catalogue about 170 rams.
Elders stud stock's Alistair Keller said during the sale process they received enquires from WA to Vic and NSW
"To find someone like the Murdoch family who are so passionate about the industry and taking the stud forward is a huge result, especially with the season as it is
"As a company, we want to thank Peter and the family for entrusting us to achieve this sale, it has been a huge effort by everyone involved to get a big sale like this over the line," he said.
He said with Glenlea Park being the number one ranking ram sale in Australia last year - with the sale averaging $4065 for 147 lots- buyers knew they were "buying at the top of the industry".
"Everyone wanted a piece of it, from the name to the brand to the top-end sheep with bright, white good quality wools which are structurally correct," he said.
Mr Wallis says selling the stud to another SA breeder as an ongoing concern is the best possible outcome, especially for their clients.
"We are very happy to see it go to Joe and Lucy who are not only great people but passionate about breeding Merino sheep," he said.
"They have said to me they don't want to 'reinvent the wheel' but keep it going on similar lines which is nice to hear.
"During the process they were considerate of not taking the sheep back to the Yorke Peninsula which would have been too far away for some of our clients to follow them, now the stud is moving less than 40 kilometres away."
Mr Wallis will remain involved for 12 months in a part-time advisory role at the request of the Murdochs, assisting with client introductions, classing and joining decisions.
"Pete's wealth of knowledge will be critical to the quality of the sheep and the genetics, it will be good for Pete to stay on and give me a hand to get my head around it," Mr Murdoch said.
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