BEING a sheep farmer on King Island for the past few years has been an expensive and difficult logistical exercise.
The Cooke family are third generation sheep farmers, and the time has come for them to transition to cattle.
The Cooke family came to King Island in 1956 and started the Illawong Corriedale sheep stud on Lancaster Rd.
The Cookes are sending 7500 Illawong Stud sheep off the island. In the last fort-night, eight trailers of adult sheep have been moved to the Grassy port, northward bound to Victorian abattoirs. Three trailers of lambs will go south to Tasmania in March and 500 will stay on the island and have the hectares to themselves for a while.
The move to cattle production has been on the cards for a few years. “If it weren’t for Eastern Line Shipping getting our sheep to market in Victoria, we would have had to get out years ago,” Mark Cooke said.
Illawong is the largest sheep property on the island and pro-duces both meat and fleece, focussing on Corriedale and Dorset.
“There’s no market for older sheep in Tasmania,” Mark said.
“There are many reasons for moving to cattle farming – TasPorts’ cessation of the King Island to the Melbourne port cut us off,” Noel Cooke reflected.
“Meat and fleece have experienced fluctuating prices, and increased transport costs across Bass Strait to Welshpool and then trailered to the abattoirs.
“It’s a long trip. The older sheep can handle the 16 hours and the extra road transport, but the lambs can’t, they need to go to Tasmania. We have no choice. Tasmanian farmers can choose to go directly to Webb Dock in Victoria or use a Tasmanian abattoir and they receive a good shipping rate, lower costs, and it’s a shorter trip.
“We pay the Australian Wool Corp for research and marketing of wool and pay the same as Merino producers. A preference is given to Merino fleece and crossbred isn’t as important and this impacts prices.