Day 5

Arriving at Pepperton Rams

We started the day out by going to Pepperton Rams which was a meat sheep operation.  Roger and Dianne Trevick sell rams and are focused on Poll Dorsets and white Suffolks.  The farm started in 1943 and have 650 bred ewes today.  They started with just the Dorset horned sheep and in 1994 they introduced polled sheep.  In 2004, they added white Suffolk into the herd of merinos.  They lamb twice a year, use A.I., and they are proud to be Johnes negative.  

Roger Trewick showing us his rams

Helping to vaccinate and doc tails

We got to watch how his dogs move the sheep through the pasture into a load shoot.  We got to help doc tails and give vaccinations to the lambs.  The dogs were super sweet and friendly.  They did have one alpaca in the herd to help defend the sheep from any foxes that may come about.  The also had some geese that were in the far pasture.  Dianne did say that the geese follow each other up and down their driveway in a single file line in the morning and evenings.  At the end of the farm tour, they gave us some coffee and treats before we took off to our next destination.

Bruce Gill at DEDJTR Tatura giving an opening presentation about his organization

Next we visited DEDJTR Tatura, and listened to speakers on the different research projects they do there. The different projects they work on are biosecurity, dairy, horticulture, grains, and red meats. They talked about their research in water use efficiency and flood irrigation. We heard from Ian Goodwin about horticulture, yield, and quality in orchard management systems. We also learned that fruit can get sunburnt, which we found very interesting because we had never heard about having to cool your fruit down. They also provided us with lunch which was very nice.

Olive trees at Oasis Olives

Finally, we toured Oasis Olives just outside of Shepparton with John Symington. They have 15,000 olive trees on a 125 acre farm. They usually start harvesting the 1^st of May, and it usually takes about 6 weeks to complete. They produce a premium extra virgin olive oil that they sell mostly in bulk and to restaurants. We were able to see how they harvested the olives by shaking the trees, and go through their processing plant. We were also able to sample their olive oil the proper way.

Harvesting olives by shaking the trees

Olives going through the processing plant to make olive oil

 Grace Cummiskey, Kirsten Anderson, Nick Timmerman