Blackwood Sheepmaster

From the beginning.….…

A young family, small farm and a day job managing 25,000 merino ewes, meant Phil and Ginette Corker along with their daughters Heidi and Rachel always had the need to be “somewhere else”, so when the words of Dr Mark Ferguson from NeXtgen Agri said “ breed the sheep you need, then learn to love them” it was a lightbulb moment for this family. Time constraints, tougher seasons and tighter margins, all seemed to point directly towards a hardier, lower input type sheep.

Marty and Colleen Bleechmore were the quiet achievers in modern farming, being at the forefront of pasture management and ideas such as water harvesting, their journey also led them to question things such as time, labour and infrastructure costs.
So with the Bleechmore eye on productivity and the Corker passion for sheep farming, the idea for Blackwood SheepMaster Stud was born.
Both families were no stranger to shedding sheep, both dabbling in Wilti-polls for approximately 5 years before purchasing two leading sires sire from the Inaugural SheepMaster sale, including high impact sires Hercules 97 and his half brother 119, following on to buy the top priced ram Buster 236. 

Our philosophy is simple, smart use of technology, combined with selection and management of animals, showing good conformation and constitution will lead to productivty and profitability