Allendale Merino stud is changing hands from Tony Inder to his nephews Hayden and Seton Croake.
BY MARK GRIGGS
THIS was the last ram sale for Tony and Penny Inder.
They made the decision after Tony suffered a stroke in October last year.
Since then he has scaled down his workload, but is fortunate that two of his nephews will be taking over the Allendale Merino stud and also lease the Inder’s Goolma property, “Iona”.
In the negotiations Hayden and Seton Croake now own the Allendale stud of 500 ewes and its commercial flock of 1500.
Their father, Ivan was Tony’s first cousin and conducted Gilgunyah stud until his untimely death in a car accident when Hayden was 14 and Seton was 12.
“The farm and stud was sold and Penny and I sort of took them on and they did a bit of work on our farm during school holidays,” Tony Inder said.
“As time progressed the boys have become part of our family and have helped me in the stud and on the farm each and every year.
“They used to help Ivan with his sheep, so they just picked up and continued here.
“Actually, they knew more about sheep than I did at their age.”
Allendale stud was established by Eric Woods at Peak Hill in 1949 with Pooginook blood and possibly the last five or so years before the sale Eric moved to Haddon Rig rams.
Tony and Penny Inder purchased the flock in 2000 and went back to Pooginook for nearly 20 years, but moved to Wanganella blood in the past five years.
Allendale has always bred horned rams and Tony says he has no desire or passion to breed poll sheep.
The boys are happy to breed polls and they have Tony’s blessing to do whatever they want with the Allendale flock.
Tony has placed himself into an advisory capacity.
“They’ve asked me to class, but I am encouraging them to class and I will be close if they need assistance or opinion.
“This year’s Allendale sale draft has been run by the boys and we’ll split the sale proceeds at changeover time, Tony said.
“Hayden was a shearer and shore for us for many years, but now is a contract fencer.
“Both boys always worked for me in their spare time, and I’d do work for them, sow and harvest their crops, but we never charged each other.”
The stud ram sale was conducted on Thursday, September 24 and results are published in a future story.