Bruce Robinson owns a 1250 hectare property in the Waikaretu Valley half way between Port Waikato and Raglan, farmed by his son Pip. Kokonga carries 3000 Romney ewes complemented by their Hereford stud, so organising a lambswool forward contract this year has been a big benefit.

“It has been fantastic. Our PGG Wrightson Wool rep Maree Mather suggested we would do well from a forward contract for our lambswool, and encouraged us to take one up.”

Bruce normally sells his wool in the shed, though when he saw a contract for lambs wool at what he considered a fair price, not dependent on market fluctuations, he grabbed it. As it turned out being $2 per kilogram clean above the current market on delivery was a pleasant surprise.

“We clipped a kilogram off each lamb, so the return was well worthwhile,” says Bruce.

Kokonga buys rams from Alistair Reeves at Waimai Romney.

“He does a fantastic job. He puts a huge amount of research into his ram genetics and they combine really well with our ewes. It is paramount that we use genetics from the local area as facial eczema is quite a problem and it is important to breed FE resistant stock.

“We have had a  great income from our lambs this year. We have always kept in sight the need to produce good wool, and not to let that slip in favour of other genetic factors, even if returns are low.

“Wool, hopefully, will come back, and farmers need to be fully prepared to take advantage of that,” says Bruce.