Our Stories: Kelly family arrives, survives, thrives at Glen Holme, Manoora

It is a cold and blustery winter day as the Kelly family gather in the woolshed on their Glen Holme property at Manoora.

While the 850 hectare property is used for a mix of sheep and wool, cropping and hay production, the woolshed and the sheep that pass through are undoubtedly the beating heart of the Kelly's 121-year-old operation.

Multiple generations of the family are custodians of the property that welcomed Allen's grandfather Fred, and his brother Syd, when they first came to the district in 1904.

Fred and Ruby Kelly had four daughters and a son, Geoff who joined with his parents in a partnership in 1942, This was the start of the trading entity known as RF Kelly & Son, which continues to this day.

Geoff married Ronda and they had three daughters and a son, Allen. Allen married Joy in 1980 and they were both brought into the partnership with his parents Geoff and Ronda.

Allen and wife Joy now run the mixed farming enterprise with the eldest of their four daughters Lauren Philp, her husband Damien - who hails from a wool and grazing enterprise near Peterborough - and their two sons Ryan, nearly 16, and Hayden, 14.

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Living in the house and working the land that his grandfather and father did for his entire life, Allen has a deep connection to the land that may be hard to understand for those not in the business of family farming.

"It's a very deep, possibly spiritual, connection to country," Allen says.

"You know the soil types, you know what grass is growing and what's normal, you know when the trees are flowering at a different time than normal. You see all those nuances and understand it to a great degree."

Brothers outlast doubters upon Manoora arrival

Brothers Fred and Syd Kelly came to Manoora in 1904, having both been born at Urania on the Yorke Peninsula in 1878 and 1880 respectively.

Starting out with 830 acres on property that was only suitable for grazing and had not been permanently settled, neighbours made a private bet that the brothers wouldn't last three years, as all previous owners had gone broke in that time.

The early years were full of challenges. They ran out of drinking water so dug a shallow well for their domestic purposes. Original buildings consisted of a straw-roofed stable, a small hut with a fireplace for sleeping, a kitchen and a cellar.

They employed a stonemason who built the current homestead, completing it in 1908 when Fred married Ruby.

Fred and Syd dissolved their partnership in 1909, but the venture has continued well beyond that three-year bet the neighbours made.

Fred bred and educated horses for farm, riding and buggy work. The first car was bought in 1919, followed by the first tractor in 1925.

Sheep have always been an integral part of the property, mainly Merinos though some crossbreds were used prior to 1940.

Fred's son Geoff registered a Merino stud in 1946 before introducing Poll Merinos to the mix in 1954 - they became the sole sheep breed from 1980 until 2006 when Allen and Joy introduced Dohne Merinos.

Across the 121 years the Kelly's have been custodians of Glen Holme, the property has always been home to mixed farming.

The property has a long-term average annual rainfall of 475 millimetres (19 inches in the old scale), though Allen says that has been on the wane, certainly not helped by the roughly half of that average that fell in 2024.

Soils are classified as 'red brown earths' with a mix of clays and loams.

"Grandpa (Fred) had to do some land clearing, but the topography of the property (it features steep grazing slopes) means there has to be some livestock in the mix," Allen says.

"Some land lends itself to continuous cropping, some to intermittent cropping, and some to grazing."

"Grandpa bred draught horses and broke in his last colt at the age of 70. Every farm had pigs, chooks, dairy cows, sheep, cattle."

"We had dairy cattle until I was 7 or 8 and didn't have beef cattle until I started buying into them at age 17."

The only time Allen ventured from the property was a stint working as a jackaroo at Bundaleer Shorthorn stud, which was part of the WB Ashby & Sons empire.

There, he was the stud cattle groom for three Royal Shows, the Royal Adelaide twice and Sydney Easter Show, and he had valuable training in both the meat and wool aspects of livestock production.

Allen was twice an assistant judge in the SA Beef Carcase Competition, which helped his awareness of fat and muscling and the composition of a good carcase.

While his main passion has always been sheep, Allen did run a Murray Grey cattle stud for a period.

Joy was brought up on a small farm near Gawler and moved to Glen Holme when she married Allen in 1980.

She worked in retail sales and customer relations prior to raising four daughters.

More recently, Joy has held roles in office administration and customer relations for a large machinery dealership. She also has a strong ability to evaluate information in breeding concepts and has a great eye for the best type of animal in both sheep and cattle.

Allen rates the early 1990s wool crash and the passing of his father, when Allen and Joy were in their mid 30s with young children and thrust into farm management, as a couple of the biggest challenges along the way.

Current enterprise

The current day enterprise consists of the Dohne and Poll Merino studs, as well as a cropping and export hay program.

The Kellys would normally lamb down 700 to 800 ewes, but numbers are currently well back due to drought.

They breed about 200 Dohne and Poll Merino rams a year, operating in a 16-19 micron range and very much aiming for a dual-purpose animal. They have sold rams into four Australian states, plus genetics to Uruguay and Chile.

The Kellys believe what makes a good ram is subjective and often comes down to what a client wants and what environment they're operating in, but their consistent key pillars are structural soundness and correctness, productivity, and suitability to environment.

"Some people are breeding for wool, some are breeding for meat, others are breeding ewes to be used as mothers to raise terminal lambs," Joy said.

The original foray into Dohnes was driven by a desire to remain a quality wool producer, but to introduce more frame for meat production.

"We wanted better returns and a better sheep. We've found they (Dohnes) offer us better do-ability and survivability, and we find them a much more intelligent animal," Allen said.

"When we got into Dohnes, performance recording was mandatory. We have learnt the value of performance recording and the value of doing it well, which meant when we went back into Poll Merinos (they hung onto a core Poll Merino breeding line and re-registered the stud in 2021) we had upskilled enormously."

About half of their 850 hectare property is cropped, with a typical rotation including durum wheat sold to San Remo, wheat, barley, a legume and oaten hay, which is sold through Balco to the export market.

They also grow a cereal and legume hay mix for their sheep, but deliver the vast bulk of their grain.

Family skills pay the bills

Running a family operation seamlessly is not without its challenges. For Glen Holme, respect, utilising the family member's skills appropriately, and acting as a team is the formula to keeping each other motivated and accountable.

Allen has a wealth of livestock and stud stock knowledge and experience, while Joy brings experience in sales and administration that is so important in the stud game, as well as a keen eye for animals.

Lauren has a Bachelor of Agricultural Science, having trained at the Waite and Roseworthy campuses of The University of Adelaide. She worked as an agronomist with Elders for five years and is also trained in animal nutrition, production and breeding, as well as crop and pasture production.

As well as his background at his family's grazing enterprise, Damien worked in local government for ten years driving a wide range of machinery so is adept at any driving tasks needed across both sides of the enterprise.

"We work together really well across both sheep and cropping," Allen said.

Ryan and Hayden are also keen helpers whenever they get the opportunity. The boys are also integral members of their school's (Faith Lutheran College, Tanunda) sheep club and were part of the winning foursome to receive the school team award at this year's SA Sheep Expo.

With great wisdom of someone his age, Ryan says he feels proud to be part of "something bigger than the present time" and something carried out by his family for generations.

"I enjoy being part of a family-owned, multi-generational farm because it makes me feel connected to both the farm and the people on it," he said.

"I enjoy being able to live on property, with my family. This makes the farm something that is closely associated with family."

Likewise, Hayden says being part of a family farm means a lot.

"Since we don't have outside workers, I feel a stronger personal connection to the people I work with - my family," he said.

"I enjoy being able to help out with jobs like sheep work and tractor work, knowing I'm contributing directly to our farm's success."

Forward thinking integral to success

The ability to adapt and think two steps ahead of the farming industry curve has been a key feature of the Kelly's continued sustainability and success. Whether it be seeing the need for a dual purpose animal and moving to Dohnes, or being early adopters of performance recording.

The Kelly sheep ethos is unashamedly all about performance, not necessarily looks. They started using eID tags to track data points on individual animals in 2014, saying the utilisation of the BreedElite system was another big step forward.

"We collect the data well, but then we also have it processed by Sheep Genetics which means the data is comparable between seasons, properties, and flocks," Lauren says.

"Data means that we're able to see what the genetic potential of an animal is, rather than what might have happened to the animal in a feed shed or a ram shed," Joy adds.

The stud ceased mulesing in 2012 and is Authentico accredited, meaning operations selling clips under the Responsible Wool Standard can source rams from Glen Holme.

Recognising social licence to farm, ethical considerations, and sustainability as big future considerations was one of the reasons the Kellys went down that path and the next change they're preparing for is the potential introduction of eating quality premiums for lambs.

"We're aware of where future markets are going to provide premiums and discounts and we are moving our genetics so that our clients can access such markets by the time it eventuates," Allen said.

"We're moving into the eating quality sphere now that we can get some data using genomics - predictability to provide better eating quality, higher intramuscular fat, lower shear force genetics, which are going to be important in future for breeding the Merino base that people use for terminal lamb production."

Triumphs

As well as witnessing the gradual improvement that comes with breeding stud animals, there are some considerable achievements that spring to mind when the family reflects on the good times.

Glen Holme was awarded the National Champion Dohne at the Australian Sheep and Wool Show at Bendigo in 2019, and just recently they had a Dohne ram top a Merino Superior Sires index.

The number one spot was in the Merino Lamb category in both the five-year update, ahead of 392 sires, and the all-time top 50, ahead of 648 sires.

According to Sheep Genetics, the ML index is based on a production system where the majority of income is from sheepmeat production, but there is still a large focus on wool clip and quality, including fleece weight, fibre diameter, and reproduction.

The index also focuses on reducing wrinkle, and increasing growth and lean meat yield.

The ram had been evaluated in trials at three different environments, at sites near Hamilton, Vic, Trangie, NSW, and in NSW's New England region.

While they are modest about their community and industry contribution, the Kellys have spent a significant amount of their own time helping their local community, and the industry they dearly love, prosper.

Allen was on the National Council of the Australian Dohne Breeders Association for eight years, the South Australian Durum Growers' Association chair for three years, on the steering committee to form the Australian Durum Industry Association.

Fred, Geoff, Allen and Damien all served on the parents' council of their local primary school, while both Allen and Lauren have been breed speakers at the SA Sheep Expo on multiple occasions where Glen Holme supplies animals to foster the future of the sheep industry.

Lauren has also served as an adult helper at the event, while both her and Damien volunteer at the MinMan Eagles Sporting Club, and Damien is on the Manoora CFS.

Future plans

So what does the future hold for the family that have called Glen Holme home for the past 121 years?

The family sees cost to profit ratio as a continuing challenge for them and other farming families.

They foresee the social licence to farm, ethical considerations and sustainability as big outside focus points in coming decades.

Although there will be more challenges, there will undoubtedly be more triumphs in the industry they love.

When asked what they love about farming, Lauren said the space, the connection to land and their area, as well as the good nature of country people and the connectedness within agricultural circles.

"It's also a challenge, no two years are the same, you're forever learning, improving and growing," she said.

Joy and Allen agreed the people they had met throughout their time in the industry had been special, and of course the strong connection to their client base, and working with family each day.

"Working with the wider family helps you get out of bed on time in the morning - there's an accountability that you're going to be working together on something that you agreed to do," Allen said.

And they are all excited to see what the next generation do at Glen Holme.

"Ultimately it would be great to see our boys still wanting to be involved," Lauren said.

"That's where they are heading at the moment but, like Damien and I have done, it would be great for them to do something between school and the farm to gain some wider experience. At this stage, both of them are interested in coming back to the farm."

"We're also looking forward to good times returning and for the effort to pay off in a way that makes it rewarding. There's a lot of effort that goes in that you don't necessarily see the reward for. You can do all the right things and it can come down to the weather."