About
History
The Hooper family have a wealth of experience breeding stud
sheep which started back in 1928 when a young Les Hooper
started what would become the extremely successful and well
known Clear Hills Southdown Stud. In 1989 his son
Robert Hooper would then go on to start the Vortex White
Suffolk Stud. Robert and Ellen Hooper ran the stud
from then on until their son Daniel joined them on the
farm after completing his studies at Melbourne Universities'
Dookie Campus in 2005. His partner Imogen would later
join the business in 2020.
The farm is situated at Goorambat East, in North East Victoria. Vortex White Suffolks began with a base of Suffolk and Poll Dorset sheep which included Suffolk genetics from the USA to increase the size and length of the breed. Vortex sheep were a regular at many of the major shows including Melbourne, Adelaide, Bendigo, Hamilton and Geelong which produced many champions for the stud including a supreme champion at Adelaide in 1996. While we no longer participate in showing, the quality still remains. Genetics are constantly sourced from top studs all around the country through ram purchases and AI to ensure our clients receive the highest quality genetics.
In 2013 the first Charollais lambs hit the ground as we embarked on adding a new breed to our stud. We started using pure Charollais genetics over White Suffolk ewes to start the breed off. Since then we have been increasing the breed’s purity, improving it's type and commercial capabilities to produce a stronger Charollais type while keeping the beneficial traits gained from the White Suffolk such as extra length, size, weight and ability to grow out better.
While we aim to increase the purity of our Charollais, we believe that it's important that we don't lose the valuable traits gained from the White Suffolk which make Vortex Charollais unique. Our main focus is not breeding purebreds but to breed the best sheep for the job. That is a sheep which demonstrates a strong Charollais type that is extremely easy lambing, has excellent muscle through the hind quarters and loin and is fast growing and hardy. A sheep perfect for our clients and modern Australian Sheep. The White Suffolk has helped improve growth rates, create stronger sound feet and produce lambs which will grow out bigger while keeping those key Charollais traits.
Our White Suffolks are bred using some of Australia's finest genetics to produce high quality rams which have industry leading size, length, growth rates and muscling as well as being structurally sound for easy lambing and durability. We have in recent years improved our LAMBPLAN figures and continual improvement over the coming years will be observed with our stud however we continue focus on breeding strong visual traits as it's important that our sheep are visually sound and high quality as well as having the figures to back them up. We produce multiple types and styles of White Suffolks as not everyone requires the same style of ram. Big and long or lower set and more compact, the right rams are the ones that suit your ewes and what you are doing with them and we believe we have the diversity to suite most operations.
Health
Health is extremely important to us as healthy stock are productive, long lasting stock. We believe it's important to have a healthy flock and to pass on healthy and well protected rams to our clients. We vaccinate for a wide range of health issues and believe building the immunity of our rams will see our clients get more years out of them and better performance from them.
We are brucellosis accredited (accreditation number 70) and all our retained stock are OJD vaccinated (since 2005) with Gudair and are approved vaccinants.
All our sheep are annually vaccinate with Glanvac 6 and receive the necessary boosters.
In 2020 we commenced using Eryvac and Campyvax to make sure our farm's health status is at an even higher level. While we did not suspect we had a problem with Campylobacter, all our ewes were vaccinated with Campyvax in 2020 and all our young ewes are vaccinated each year for precautionary reasons. Our ewes have been receiving an Eryvac and Glanvac 6 Vaccinations prior to lambing and the lambs receive one at marking and weaning.
We are now using GlanEry 7in1 which is a combination of Eryvac and Glanvac.
Ram Vaccination Program
You're not just getting a quality well bred ram from us, you're getting an animal that has been looked after well and prepared to handle a wide range of disease.
Vortex rams come vaccinated with Gudair and are all considered approved vaccinants.
Our rams come footrot free and are fully vaccinated with Coopers Ovilis Footvax (two doses) which offers a good level of protection for those rams going to properties which have footrot. While Footvax doesn't offer 100% protection against footrot, fully vaccinated rams have a significant advantage and are going to perform and last significantly better than unvaccinated rams on a property with footrot. If you have foot trouble on your farm then our rams will serve you well as they come with good genetic resistance as well as a good level of immunity to the 10 main strains of the footrot causing bacteria D.nodosus thanks to the vaccine.
Rams come protected by GlanEry 7in1. Which covers them for Erysipelas polyarthritis, Cheesy Gland (CLA) and the five main clostridial diseases; black disease, black leg, malignant oedema, pulpy kidney, and tetanus. This means our rams are less likely to die, become sick or break down with arthritis.
As of the 21-11-2021 all rams have been vaccinated with Bovilis MH. This vaccine will offer protection from the pneumonia and pleurisy causing bacteria Mannheimia haemolytica. Pneumonia is a significant condition in sheep that can cause death and lead to the life lasting condition pleurisy which can affect the performance, stamina and vigor of your sheep. This disease is particularly significant in lambs in dry, dusty and feed lot conditions but can affect all sheep. It's significant to rams as rams need to have good stamina when it comes to getting around the mob and serving ewes. Rams who have recovered from pneumonia may have pleurisy which can affect their stamina and reduce their performance. We believe that preventing pneumonia and pleurisy will increase the lifespan, health, vigor and stamina of our rams which is just another way we make them stronger performers.
We can't recommend the use of Bovilis MH in sheep as the product is not registered for sheep yet however Coopers Animal Health are expecting that it will be registered for use in sheep soon. Trials have show excellent results for the use of this product in sheep and a number of feed lots and stud breeders are already using the product. We will be vaccinating our whole flock in 2021 meaning our 2022 drop of rams will come fully vaccinated with this product and will be more likely to be free of respiratory disease such as pleurisy.
Click here for more information on using Bovilis MH in Sheep.
If you are interested in trying Bovilis MH in your sheep, please contact Coopers Animal Health before doing so.
Our Vaccination program means our rams are more reliable, longer lasting, stronger performing and greater value for money.
Breeding
Natural breeding is encouraged with our flock which has
resulted in hardy animals which need very little assistance.
We understand that farmers are very busy and there are
always jobs to be done. The importance of minimising work
at lambing time by breeding low maintenance sheep is
high as we all want to get on with other jobs.
Artificial Insemination and ram purchases from as far as
South Australia, all around Victoria and Northern New South Wales
have been a strong influences on our stud when it comes to
bringing in improved genetics. LAMBPLAN has
been a valuable tool for us but is not the sole focus of our
breeding program with visual traits and structure being very
important to us. We aim to breed rams that will work
hard in all conditions and produce lambs that will be born
easily, survive strongly and grow quickly into high quality
lambs which the market desires.
|
|
R, E & D Hooper
1093 Benalla-Yarrawonga Road
Goorambat, Victoria, Australia, 3725
Daniel: 0437 684786
Imogen: 0439 864 477
E-Mail: vortex.ws@bigpond.com
