Jock’s passion and love for nature and animals has run in his family for generations, across continents and time to become stronger and stronger. We are at Winterbourne (Armidale) in Australia, where Jock is carrying out the work started by his ancestors: “I love farming, it’s in my blood. My great-grandfather was a sheep farmer in Australia between 1840 and 1900. He came from Scotland and ran a Merino flock of up to 70,000 sheep in the Riverina area in southern NSW.””
After marrying a local woman, his great-grandfather returned to Scotland, where Jock was born, in a farm where he grew up in close contact with animals and nature. His childhood was spent there, in the majestic and remote Highlands, a time Jock looks back on with great pleasure, a time that marked the start of his life as a farmer of superior lambs. In 1986 Jock moved to Australia and started to breed Merino sheep. There he fully understood the great differences between Merino sheep and the Blackface and Suffolk breeds typically found in Scotland.
In 1988 he bought his first farm in Australia, in Walcha, NSW, where he experienced great joys as well as daily challenges, especially at times of drought, times when people and animals alike must deal with adversity and the unpredictability of climate.
In 1998 Jock spent time in Italy and got to visit the Reda factory, where he was amazed by the advanced technology used for the production of outstanding fabric: “I was fascinated by the brand-new investment into machinery and the beautiful fabric being made. The passion for our fibre was animated by the Botto family. It gave me courage to stick with wool and to target my market rather than just produce a commodity.” Driven by a newfound enthusiasm, Jock and Shara sold the Walcha farm in 2001 to buy a larger 6,700-acre farm in Armidale where he and his dogs now manage 10,000 Merino sheep and some cows.
It is clear from Jock’s words how his is a story of hard work and great passion, which come together to produce outstanding Merino wool while fully respecting the environment: “We strive to improve our sheep so they can perform in our environment to produce a world-class fibre which is clean and employs people in every step of the production helping our planet become a better place to live without leaving a footprint. Wool is biodegradable naturally unlike plastic and synthetic which is cheap and harmful to life.”
Sustainability is one of the core values on the farm and Jock definitely knows the kind of lesson he wants to teach future generations: “Our goal is to leave less of a footprint and to leave a legacy for the next generation to continue in a way where we help our local community and the environment we live in. Life is about what you put in, not what you take out.”
