Meet one of the best maternal Merino breeders in the country
This NSW farming family has built one of Australia's leading Merino studs, growing from selling 70 rams to nearly 500 a year through cutting-edge genetics and innovation.
Nothing makes NSW Merino producers Rick and Jill Baldwin happier than positive feedback from their clients, some of whom have been buying their Bundilla Poll Merinos for more than three decades.
“Just yesterday I got a text from a client in the shearing shed at Lake Bolac, he sent me pics of his wool, saying how excited he was, that’s very satisfying,” Rick said.
In October, the Baldwin family celebrated their 40th annual Merino ram sale, pausing to reflect on how far they’ve come since Bundilla Poll Merino stud was established in 1975 by Rick’s parents in the renowned wool growing region of Young.
Building on Ross and Susi Baldwin’s dream to breed a modern, well-balanced, and highly fertile Merino, today Rick and his wife Jill have cemented Bundilla’s position as one of Australia’s leading Merino studs.
“Our goal of breeding the best maternal Merino in the industry has not changed for two generations. My parents had an exceptional stud and we’ve scaled it up, Mum and Dad were selling 70 odd rams and we’ve done close to 500 this year, but our core values remain the same. We’ve had to work hard for what we have, we must be innovative in what we do, and always look ahead,” Rick said.
GENETIC GROWTH
Since they took over in 1996, Rick and Jill, and their three daughters, have grown Bundilla Poll Merinos from 400 to 2500 full pedigree stud ewes, with a 3000 head commercial ewe breeding program – this year they’ll join 6000 ewes.
Throughout the decades, patience along with a thirst for knowledge and innovation, have been the keys to success for the generations of Baldwin’s working at Bundilla.
Using detailed data, painstakingly collected over the years, and cutting-edge genetics, they have consistently bred the perfect dual-purpose Merino, maximising the animal’s wool quality and meat per hectare, as efficiently as possible.
Ross’s early vision was to produce a heavy cutting, highly fertile Merino with the ability to wean twin lambs, and today it is one of Bundilla Merinos signature traits.
“Thanks to Dad’s foresight we have a full pedigree dating back to the 1970’s. It would be hard to find any stud with the depth of background data that we have,” Rick said.
Taking the lead from Ross and Susi’s work, Rick and Jill have built one of Australia’s largest private genetic databases, which underpins the operation’s focus on breeding animals with well-balanced traits across fertility, fleece, and carcass performance.
Their flock is now fully genomic, and every animal in the stud has a genomic testometer score.
“The stud work takes up the most of our time, it’s a lot of work, particularly in the data collection, but the genetics drive everything, and we are ahead of the markets with regards to identifying genetics that will be successful in the next 10 years.”
“People are aware of what our genetics can do which adds value to our surplus ewe sales and the quality of produce we are sending off the place. We make sure that what we are producing is the very best that we can produce,” Rick said
TEAM WORK
Jill said that they are focused on continual improvement, noting that their genetic innovations have been particularly helpful to resolve more traditional issues the industry has faced, such as sheep dag and breech wrinkle.
“Reducing breech wrinkle and eliminating sheep dag has been a big focus over recent years, if clients are going non-mules, we are wanting to produce rams that are mules free. We want to create a highly productive, easy-care animal,” she said.
Rick and Jill are a formidable team who share a passion for sheep and life on the land. Jill was raised on a sheep farm near Cootamundra before heading off to university. Rick headed to Sydney to study too, but the lure of the land brought him home. They married in 2003 and have three daughters, Cleo, 20, Lily, 18, and Mimi, 16, who are equally at home on the land.
Over the years, they have developed a rewarding and hands-on partnership, their skills complementing one another running the commercial operations and looking after the stud.
“Jill is my sounding board; we are constantly bouncing ideas off one another. Jill is the one I go to with the ‘what do you think about …’ moments and she does the same to me. Jill’s attention to detail has been a huge plus for us.”
“I managed my parents livestock business for almost 20 years so I’m very comfortable managing operations and keeping things ticking along behind the scenes,” Jill said.
“Rick does a lot of the genetics work which he really enjoys, we work well together and we respect one another. We are very focused on working smarter, not harder.”
ACCURACY PAYS
Bundilla’s annual sale is always a big focus for the family, and Rick and Jill are pleased with this years’ results. The average price of Poll Merino rams, with an average 18.5-micron wool, was $2982 with their top price ram selling for $9000. In 2022 their top price ram sold for $18,000. Many of their buyers are repeat clients.
“The buyers want to take something home that they know is going to perform for them. We are in the top three Merino studs in Australia for accuracy, which gives us a lot of confidence in what we do. If we enter a ram in the sale, we know the ram will breed to how he reads. That gives us confidence in all the genetics we are providing to people, and it’s very satisfying.”
When they first took over Bundilla, Rick and Jill added on to the existing property. Of the current 2100 hectares, around 900ha is dedicated to cropping.
“We crop around 40 per cent each year, and try to bring in around 10 per cent, on five-year rotation. It’s enough crop to worry about, but not enough to be a huge part of the operation,” Rick said.
“It has a direct purpose providing pasture and grazing for livestock.”
“Every crop, whether it’s canola or wheat is grazeable and when we have tough years, we are happy to graze country out because we know if we grow our young sheep out and keep them in good condition, they reward us for it and we are still making money.”
Both Rick and Jill believe that learning from the past and keeping an eye on the future is the best method for success, and will continue to build solid foundations for the next generation at Bundilla.
“It’s always a work in progress, we are always trying to do things better than we’ve done them before, but we are very proud of what we’ve achieved,” Jill said.
“There’s no pressure on our girls to stay on the farm but they are all involved in their own way which is wonderful and we all work well together. We want them to follow their dream and try different things and do what they are passionate about, and if that means returning to the farm that is fantastic, it will always be here for them.”
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