We are a progressive merino business focused on dual purpose merinos
Hallbar Merino is based in South West Victoria. Our passion is breeding merino sheep and we love the fantastic way the merino is able to produce both quality wool and lamb. After studying in Sweden, Pete fell in love with the Scandinavian way of life; the culture and balanced approach to business. We were fortunate to have the opportunity to form Hallbar Merino in 2022 and with our balanced approach to farming incorporated “Hallbar”, Swedish for “sustainable” into our name.
We value honest feedback, and are open to all feedback. The open and honest advise of the team supporting our business give us clear direction.
Our team value highly trustworthy relationships and we have developed a supportive team to help make our business excel. We place trust in our close associates to advise and guide our business in the optimum direction.
We have strong values and principles and follow them consistently. We live in accordance with our deepest values we are honest with everyone and follow through on our promises.
There is a well known saying “you don’t know what you don’t know”. We are always looking to further our learning and education to improve our business and farming practices.
Our People behind the scenes
Pete Fraser
Owner
Always passionate about farming, after completing an engineering / finance degree and working in mining Pete was able to return to farming and now operates Hållbar Merino with Jess.
Jess Fraser
Owner
As a midwife and mum is the rock behind the scenes of the day to day operations of Hållbar Merino with Pete.
A little history
Our family has been farming on our property since 1870 and have bred merino sheep since the 1980’s. Originally based off Woolaroo bloodlines and subsequently a Pooginook daughter stud. We chose to focus heavily on carcass traits in 2017 resulting in muscling and doing ability. Subsequently we have continued to focus on maintaining carcass traits whilst improving wool quality and worm resistance and reducing dag. We trialled alternative breech modification methods (liquid nitrogen) in 2020 and in 2021 ceased muelsing.
Our farm Derrylodge was first settled in 1870.
Prior to breeding merino sheep our flock was based on broad wool Corridale ewes, and with multiple crosses of merino genetics a merino ewe base was formed. With lamb and mutton prices low and wool prices high the focus was on increasing the wool value.
With our continued focus on improving our ewes and production systems we implemented a revised breeding plan looking to optimise the balance of trait selection within our ewe and rams. We have placed a high focus on selecting genetics which will propel our business into the future, balancing high growth and survivability with our lambs married with low, easy care features such as low dag and worm resistance whilst maintaining our wool returns.
As part of succession planning within in the family, Pete and Jess where able to form Hallbar Merino and continue to farm on the original family property “DerryLodge”
Our Approach to breeding.
