OUR STORY

WELCOME TO KURRALEA

Kurralea is a family-owned stud in the heart of the Riverina, NSW, close to the townships of Ariah Park & Mirrool, & south of West Wyalong.

Started by Jim & Kim Prentice in 1975, today the stud is run by Ben & Lucy Prentice, & their 3 children, Maya, Ruby & Henry.

From humble beginnings, Kurralea Studs is now recognised as one of the leading sheep studs in Australia today.

On our 2700 acre property we run 1800 stud ewes across 4 breeds & sell around 500 commercial & stud rams each year.  In addition to our stud sheep breeding operation, we run a small herd of stud Speckle Park cattle & commercial short horns, as well as an intensive cereal cropping program on approx. 800 – 1000 acres each year.

Ben’s father Jim passed on his love of sheep breeding & continuing Jim’s legacy is something Ben is passionate about. Everyone in the Prentice family plays a role in the successful running of our stud farm business.

OUR HISTORY

The original Kurralea Poll Dorset Stud was founded by Jim Prentice in 1975 after his return to the family farm following a stint playing VFL for South Melbourne.

Jim always had a keen interest in sheep & decided to do something a bit different to the typical mixed farming operations of commercial sheep & cropping that dominated the region at that time.

Jim initially purchased 14 stud ewes & a stud ram from the renowned Alleynside Stud followed by the purchase of Cherry Tree Stud, NSW in 1980.  The stud continued to invest in leading genetics adding Jacks Well Stud in 1991.

Throughout the 1980 & 90’s the stud achieved great success in both show & sale rings, with Kurralea Studs winning Champion Ram at many of the major agricultural shows as well as topping the Melbourne Royal show stud ram sales several times.

In 1998, Kurralea held it’s first On Property ram sale & following the success of that sale decided to offer all Stud breed rams only at our annual On Property sales.

In 1999 we formed Kurralea White Suffolk stud with 70 elite ewes purchased from leading & established studs, Galaxy Park, Detpa Grove & Allendale.

Sale highlights for Poll Dorset stud rams sold at sale include – $25,000 in 2003, $26,000 in 2005 & $28,000 in 2012, all of which set national records in those years.

In 2014 Kurralea further expanded adding a Suffolk stud to it’s operations with the purchase 16 ewes & a ram from the Broughton Lodge dispersal in SA.

At our 2019 & 2020 sales we achieved our highest stud ram prices yet, with rams selling for $32,000 in 2019 for a Poll Dorset ram, followed by $20,000 in 2020 for a White Suffolk ram.

After initially buying an Ultra White ram in 2019 to cross with a number of White Suffolk ewes & being very happy with the results we bought a selection of registered stud ewes from Hillcroft Farms stud, WA in 2020.

The following year the Ultra White sheep breed was officially recognised & registered, & Kurralea is now is one of thirteen founding studs of this game-changing breed.

AROUND THE FARM