Our Stories: Hull farm thrives on bedrock of community and coastal lifestyle

While there are challenges that come with farming on the Eyre Peninsula - primarily distance - there are just as many upsides and a major one is the laidback lifestyle.

It is a common thread in conversation with the Hull family, as they discuss what it's like to live and farm at Port Kenny and Mount Cooper, near the west coast.

Brothers Leroy and Rohan acknowledge they may take it for granted at times, but raising their kids in a safe community, with a great school, good people, freedom of the farm, and beach shacks at Venus Bay is a wonderful way to live, even before diving into the farming topic.

The farming enterprise is certainly all about family - parents Geoff and Bronwyn, working alongside Leroy and his wife Kelsey and their three children Declan, 9, Stella, 7, and Bonnie, 5. Just down the road from Leroy and Kelsey are Rohan and his wife Tegan and their kids Georgie, 9, Lenny, 7, and Zoe, 5.

An older brother Jacob, who after leaving the farm worked for five years as farm manager of Minnipa Ag Centre now works as an agronomist with West Coast Ag, Streaky Bay, and is married to Steph and has kids Finlay, 17, and Elisha 16. He now works alongside the family as their agronomist.

Their sister Chelsea Westlake lives an hour away at Wudinna with her husband Steve and kids Indy, 9, and Willow, 7. Steve and Chelsea operate Westlake Contracting and Granite Country Outdoors in Wudinna.

MORE OUR STORIES:Joyce family, Wandearah and Mullaquana Station; Makin family, Keith; Lillecrapp family, Todmorden Station; Heinrich family, Black Springs; Adams family, Langhorne Creek.

HOW IT BEGAN

Leroy and Rohan Hull's grandfather Reg moved up from the Colton area after World War 2, taking up a 1800-acre property in the Port Kenny area under the soldier settler scheme.

Their father Geoff was one of Reg and Rhonda's 11 children.

Geoff's nephew Jesse operates Minta Poll Merino stud, while another of Geoff's brothers farms at Esperance, WA.

Geoff embarked on his own journey in 1981 on a property at Witera, before selling and purchasing the current Mount Cooper property in 1992.

Leroy and Rohan are proud of the progress the family business has made and the way their parents gave them such a solid foundation to work from.

Expansion has happened every decade.

They expanded the Mount Cooper property in 2000, bought more land at Port Kenny in 2009, then a block 65 kilometres south at Talia in 2021, now operating across 6500ha in total and employing three full-time staff, as well as seeding and harvest casuals.

"We've got a lot of pride in what our parents have done," Leroy said.

A MAGNIFICENT MIX

Today's Hull enterprise consists of a sizeable cropping program, White Suffolk and UltraWhite sheep studs, and a commercial Poll Merino flock.

While the area - characterised by grey calcareous loam soils and some white sands - has always been home to mixed farming, it is definitely in the midst of a swing towards cropping, the Hulls say.

They crop 4000ha of their 6500ha and sharefarm another 400ha.

A typical cropping rotation is 35 per cent wheat, 25pc barley, 15pc lentils with the remaining 25pc left as self-generating medic pastures.

Lentils have been taken up widely in the region in the past three years and Leroy says their gross margins are currently blowing other crops out of the water.

For example, in a tough 2024 season, wheat crops yielded about 1 tonne/ha, with lentils doing the same, but at roughly double the price.

Grain is delivered into the Viterra network at either Witera or Port Lincoln.

"We're trying to get our machinery to a standard where we can hold some more grain on-farm in the better years and deliver more to port at Port Lincoln or Lucky Bay," Rohan said.

On the sheep side of the business, the Hulls operate the Kattata Well White Suffolk stud, which was registered in 2011, and an UltraWhite stud registered in 2021.

Due to seasonal factors and a lot of sheep getting sold off the Eyre Peninsula in the past 18 months, the Hulls have cut back their White Suffolk stud ewe numbers from 600 to 300, and are running 100 UltraWhites.

"We're just going to see how it plays out in the next couple of years and whether people go back into sheep," Leroy said.

The Hulls have been using DNA testing and eID tags for roughly 10 years.

They carefully balance tradition with current ASBV traits and indexes, making breeding decisions based on both visual assessments and figures.

"They have to have length as well as be good on their feet. We sell rams into station country and wet country so structure is really important," Leroy said.

"They also can't fall away in the muscle department," Rohan added.

The Hulls consider two major ram purchases as big drivers in the direction and success of the stud.

One was the $68,000 buy of Cruiser from Anden, Woomelang, Vic, and a $22,000 Wheetlande purchase, both "true White Suffolk types with the figures to go with it".

They are expecting to offer 150-180 White Suffolk rams at their on-property sale on August 19.

The move into UltraWhites coincided with a shift the brothers saw in the sheep industry, with some commercial operators in their region moving away from Merinos into shedding breeds.

They were already breeding rams, so took the plunge to become registered and acknowledged. It has been a mixed bag since.

"We've probably sold to most of the local market we thought we would, but it hasn't taken off quite the way we thought it might outside of that," Rohan said.

The Hulls describe the shedders as very hard and good doers, which they have never had to shear.

Their self-replacing Merino flock, like many others in the area, has had numbers cut during the drought.

Ewe numbers have been cut from roughly 3000 to 1600, with a view to get cover back on their paddocks before assessing their next move.

Their wool is sold through Quality, with grown sheep producing fleece around the 19.5 micron mark and hoggets cutting 17-18M.

A 12-monthly shearing is done in September. Half of their ewe lambs are generally retained with the others either sold to processors, or as ewe hoggets through AuctionsPlus or Jamestown market.

The Hulls feedlot their wether lambs, which are sold on-hooks to Thomas Foods International.

PRIDE IN FAMILY AND COMMUNITY

While Leroy and Rohan are typically laconic about what the farm means to them, they swell with pride when talking about raising their kids in a way that grounds them and "gives them a great floor in their lives".

"As far as the EP goes, the community-oriented people make it what it is," Rohan said.

"It's a very safe community and a good place to raise kids where everyone looks out for each other."

Kelsey, who grew up at Minnipa and did a gap year in the Navy after graduating from nearby Karcultaby Area School - where all the kids now go - there is nothing quite like seeing her kids thrive in a tight-knit community and school.

"It's a great place for the kids and gives them freedom. It's also given me the ability to be a stay at home mum."

Tegan, who hails from the Fitzgerald farming family at Kyancutta, is a teacher at Karcultaby Area School and oversees the bookkeeping and administrative side of the business alongside Kelsey.

The two young families, and their parents, are also heavily involved in community pursuits and serve on various local committees.

They all love the Elliston Districts Football and Netball Club, which sometimes requires members to make a 2-3 hour drive for away games.

Rohan is a co-minis footy coach, Leroy a team manager for the under 12s, while Kelsey coaches junior netball and is a very successful player. Tegan has been a long-standing committee member, who also coaches, umpires and plays.

Using their knowledge of livestock and farming, Leroy and Rohan have been greatly involved in football club fundraising efforts and the whole family are great supporters of the Karcultaby Area School ag program, with Leroy working as a mentor to led wether students.

The small school punches above its weight, set to defend a led wether team crown at the Royal Adelaide Show this year and participating in the led steers competition for the first time.

Geoff is the president of the Venus Bay and Port Kenny Progress Association and has previously served on the Streaky Bay Council. He is also an active member of the Streaky Bay Races Committee.

GREAT ROLE MODELS

The Hulls are striving to provide to their kids what their parents gave them in spades - a great example to emulate.

Bronwyn, who was from a Sampson farming family at Warramboo, always showed a keen passion for farming which Rohan and Leroy can remember fondly, chuckling that she was the self-appointed landcare officer of the property, encouraging the planting of many trees.

She served on the EP soils board and was always involved in farm work, as well caring for the kids.

Once the kids had gotten a bit older, she founded Hull Real Estate in Streaky Bay, and was also a school bus driver for some time.

"Geoff and Bronny have been unreal as far as succession goes too, and have been really keen for us girls to get involved and show us the ropes too," Kelsey said.

"Whenever we talk about succession we're always very conscious of each other and we have open discussions," Rohan added.

"Our family uses a range of consultants and we consistently meet throughout the year to ensure everyone is on the same page."

The farm has also benefited from Geoff's willingness to innovate, trial and adopt new methods.

He bought a disc machine and trialled his own method of one-pass seeding in the late 1990s, which was followed by an airseeder purchase in 2000, and a big clay spreading program on white sandy soils in the early 2000s.

The family also did a significant amount of deep ripping and delving of soils half a decade ago, and now run chaff carts and a seed destructor at harvest time.

"At the time (late 1990s) we didn't have the machinery to go direct drilling, so Dad set his tractor and cultivator up with the combine towed behind so he could seed in one pass," Rohan said.

"He's always been quite proactive with his farming methods and taught us to try new things, and not be scared of failure."

The brothers say Geoff has not lost any of his appetite for innovation, still scheming on a long-standing ambition to find an inter-row biodegradable material that can direct rain and moisture into furrows, but also prevent weed growth to reduce chemical, and promote microbial activity and plant growth by warming the soil.

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS

Understandably so given the season that has just been and the ongoing drought, the Hulls are cautious about outlining any big future plans, saying the rising cost of farming, rising red tape and administrative burdens are making operating a healthy farm business an increasing challenge.

Recent infrastructure improvements and their no-fuss attitudes should serve them well in the immediate future, and outside influences can't quell some of the core things the Hulls love about the family tradition.

While even he can't put a finger on exactly why, Leroy enjoys the process and constant change of farming throughout a season, something that has caught his eye from a young age.

From earth getting turned over, changes of colours with the season, wool coming off sheep, a crop being taken off, and the smells of different times of the year.

And long may the constant and gradual change continue.