OUR STORY
5th Generation Farmers
The Lawrie family has been producing wool and grain for over one hundred years in the Tumby Bay region.
Today the farm is managed by Sydney Lawrie and wife Therese with the ongoing help of his parents, Graeme and Kerry.
Sydney's three sons and daughter are the 6th generation and are already learning the family trade.
OUR HOME
Collandra North, Tumby Bay
We're located on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula, just 3km from the coast on the outskirts of Tumby Bay.
The property comprises approximately 6,432 acres , varying from rich flats rising to gently rolling hills, with an annual rainfall of 325 mm to 400 mm.
We are a mixed operation with wool, rotational cropping and our core focus, the Poll Merino Stud.
Along with Collandra North we also have 2 other properties to the south and inland, providing important diversity in climate and soil.
OUR POLL MERINO STUD
Rams that Deliver
Our Poll Merino stud was formed in 1977 with the purchase of poll ewes and a ram from E.E. Lang & Sons “Whyandra”, Georgetown.
The breeding program is focused towards producing big frame, early maturing and nourished rams with quality wool that is white, bright and high yielding. Each year are rams are bought by farms both locally and across many different Australian regions.
We are proud that our progeny are helping improve flock genetics in the major wool producing regions of NSW and SA.
SYDNEY LAWRIE
Principle
Growing up on the family farm, Syd always new he wanted to be a sheep farmer. Straight out of school he completed a Livestock and Wool traineeship with Landmark. This took him across SA and NT where he discovered the breadth of the ag industry.
Returning to help run the family farm he soon brought in new techniques and technologies to increase efficiencies and quality.
This thirst for knowledge led him to be a founding committee member of the AWI National Merino Challenge, helping bring more young people into the wool industry.
In 2017 he joined an AWI Study Tour to China to better understand downstream wool processing, which further cemented the need, in his mind, for best practice continuous improvement across farm operations.
Amongst other ongoing industry body involvement, he was the AWI Wool Poll Chairman in 2018.
Syd lives at Collandra North with his wife Therese and four children.
CHRIS BOWMAN
Classer
Well known in the merino industry Chris Bowman is an independent, professional sheep classer and merino breeding specialist with 40 plus years of experience.
Over the past 14 years he has built up a classing run of 200,000 stud and flock sheep throughout Australia and New Zealand.
He also advises clients on sheep breeding, management and marketing, identifying top performing sires, sourcing genetics and selects around 2,000 rams for clients annually.
