Small but mighty at McIntosh Farm

South Gippsland farmers Neva and Matthew Court are using their lamb operation to change the way we talk about agriculture and food.

The verdant, undulating hills of South Gippsland is prime country for raising quality beef and lambs, with the provenance of food from the region growing more reputable among the nation’s culinary community.

But for Neva and Matthew Court, this landscape is an opportunity to change the discourse around food production, consumption, and the use of agricultural land.

Originally hailing from Sydney, Matthew has gone from a 25-plus year career in the commercial food industry to a life on the land at Strzelecki.

It is here, the Courts say, they can make the most impact when it comes to how Australians eat via their prime lamb operation McIntosh Farm.

About 100 breeding ewes are run across 100ha of hilly land sitting at about 800 dry sheep equivalents, with the Courts working to build the flock up to 120 to 130 as a workable number.

What results is a boxed lamb enterprise, with products such as lamb racks, barbecue packs, and whole lamb packs sold via their website direct to consumers.

And having registered earlier this year as an official Wiltipoll stud, the Courts have plans for both their own patch of dirt, and the Wiltipoll breed in general.

Neva and Matt on farm with their Wiltipolls. Picture: Zoe Phillips

McIntosh Farm’s commercial flock is 100 per cent Wiltipoll, a fully-shedding sheep variety.

And while the Wiltipoll breed makes for a high-performing, low-maintenance animal on McIntosh Farm, the decision to run the breed was serendipitous, and almost accidental.

“We’d been living in Sydney, and then we moved to Melbourne, and actually bought a small acreage in Main Ridge, about 4.7 acres, at the time we thought was enormous,” Neva said. 
“And our neighbour put a couple of (Wiltipoll) sheep on our property just to keep the grass down.”

Matthew has since gone on to become president of the Wiltipoll Breeders Association, with McIntosh Farm officially registered as a stud in early 2023.

“Wiltipolls have a long and illustrious, and quite chequered history … and there’s two very clear factions,” Matthew said.

“So I’ve come in and gone all right, I want to be seedstock as a start, and I want to be seedstock for commercial operators. So for people who are running White Suffolks, Merinos, whatever, if they want to change to a shedding sheep, then we need to be able to produce really good quality sheep. We’ve got farmers coming to us asking to buy 30 rams. Well, there aren’t 30 registered rams in the state of Victoria. We’re in this funny spot where there’s high demand, and we’re trying to navigate through.

“We’ve grown to be one of the largest Wiltipoll stud breeders in Victoria – our aim is to breed the best quality prime lamb. We use a mix of visual selection like clean shedding as well as muscle scanning and ASBVs. We also overlay selection criteria based on mothering, multiples and also temperament in our breeding process.”

The McIntosh Farm flock originates from GeeTee and Munna bloodlines, which are two of the founding Wiltipoll bloodlines.

Joining takes place in late February to early March at a rate of one ram per 40-50 ewes.

“We join in separate mobs to maintain full control over the breeding process,” Matthew said.

Ram bloodlines are replenished every three years.

Lambs are weaned at 12 to 14 weeks, with survival rates sitting about 140 per cent, before being turned off between six to eight months, or when they reach 50kg liveweight.

Ewes are rotated out once they reach eight years of age, but a number of older ewes which Matthew said are “highly productive and great mothers” remain on farm.

Once weaned, lambs are run in a single mob, bar ram lambs which are removed at weaning and run in with the older rams.

Long-term average rainfall is between 900-1000mm, which mostly falls in winter.

Matthew said in recent years rainfall has dried off throughout the winter, with more rainfall in the shoulder seasons of spring and autumn.

Light clay loam soil spans the majority of the farm, with topsoil depth ranging from about 30cm to over a metre in our flatter paddocks. Given our hilly country we are actively managing and working on soil and pasture regeneration in those steeper paddocks to both reduce erosion and to rebuild the biodiversity for our farm.

“We started a planting program 12 months ago to re-establish windbreaks, shelter belts and biosecurity corridors with a vision to plant about 10,000 trees across the next five years,” Matthew said.

“Perennial rye and clover cover most of the farm but as with most farms managing invasive weeds is an ongoing battle.”

McIntosh Farm Wiltipoll Neva Courts and her partner Matt run a grass fed ethical prime lamb operation in South Gippsland. Picture: Zoe Phillips

A number of core principles centre Neva and Matthew’s farming practice: using a reliable animal, working to regenerate the land, and fostering strong connections with their consumers.

Neva said when they first purchased the farm five years ago, it was rundown, with fragmented ownership in the past 20 years.

“We knew we were going to have to do a lot of work in terms of infrastructure … and we’ve made a lot of changes around fencing,” Neva said.

“Ultimately, that’s when we started learning about how it’s great to have fences and things, but if you’re not really looking after the land … so much of this land would have been forested. So we need to really manage erosion, and we need to manage soil health.”

The Courts don’t employ any staff, but without the task of shearing their flock seasonally, and with a workable number of animals, the farm is able to be managed by the couple throughout the year.

“And this is going to sound a bit awkward, but we don’t necessarily want to hire help. Good help is really hard to find, and labour is a cost, a massive cost,” Matthew said.

“Then, how do I balance that with the sustainability of the block of dirt we’re on? our biggest customer is not the people we sell our lamb to, it’s this block of land. If we don’t look after the patch of dirt we’re on, then everything else falls over.”

Largest costs include fencing the property, fertiliser, and weed control.

Minimal chemicals are used, however all sheep are drenched and vaccinated.

“We use as little as possible, but the reality is we do drench our sheep. If you’ve ever seen a sheep suffering from a barbers pole parasite, you’ll give a worming treatment,” Matthew said.

Lambs are processed at Radfords in Warragul, before being butchered by Graham Finlay in nearby Wonthaggi.

Moving stock through paddocks is key to giving pastures time to recover, with the original two paddocks on the property having been increased to 24 in the past five years.

McIntosh Farm no longer slashes for hay, instead leaving the pastures for stock to graze.

Lambing rates this year were 182 per cent, with Matthew citing the strong maternal traits of the Wiltipoll breed and their tendency for multiples as an underpinning factor.

Matt and Neva are strict when it comes to culling stock that doesn’t suite their objectives.

“If the boys don’t make the cut as rams, and we’re pretty picky about what we do and don’t want to keep, then those wethers are the ones we send to Radfords,” Matthew said.

“McIntosh Farm wethers are our prime meat product, processed and currently sold as prime lamb packs via our website. We’re actively seeking to connect with the restaurant trade to explore options to get our lamb onto menus.”