Farming is a family affair for the Davidson clan. 102 years ago, Michael Davidson’s grandfather and brothers moved to the Mangaorapa District from Otago and purchased blocks of land. His grandmother had a bit herself and so did several others in the family. Scrub as far as you could see.
Michael, his wife, Jane and son James are now the only members of the family still farming in the District. Michael and Jane work together on the farm and James is soon to join them. Michael and Jane raises 350 ha of sheep and cattle. They currently run 1,600 Romney ewes, 400 hoggets and 90 Cows on 350 effective ha, the rest of property being in Bush Reserve and Forestry. They had Superfine Merinos for 16 years, the wool was beautiful but the sheep couldn’t handle worms, no resilience and they changed to Romneys 10 years ago.
Purchasing their Worm Resilient Romney rams from a Primary Wool Co-operative member and building up a relationship with Lew Willoughby, it seemed to Michael that joining the Primary Wool Co-operative was the only way to go. “It’s commonsense,” he says. It was better than the corporate schemes on offer at the time and this decision has paid its way in rebates, dividends and cheap woolpacks.
Michael sees huge potential once it really gets into gear. “It sounds like they are doing everything right,” he says. “I thought they were not advertising themselves hard enough but that seems to have changed recently.”
He encourages the co-operative to keep up the good work and to continue to educate people in urban environments about the importance of wool.
Primary Wool Co-operative is proud to have Michael and Jane as members of the Co-operative.