Mr Wilson, now 21, and a student at the University of Canterbury, has been breeding Poll Dorsets for 13 years. His interest was first whetted as a child when he travelled the country for eight months of the year with his sheep and beef-farming parents, showjumpers Simon and Claire Wilson.
"A&P shows were always a highlight; while the entertainment and hot chips did capture me initially, I naturally gravitated towards the sheep exhibitions."
At just 6 or 7, he started helping his best friend Dylan Bibby show his black and coloured sheep at local A&P shows. While his friend enjoyed success, Mr Wilson noticed his sheep were often beaten by the larger meat breeds, which sparked his interest.
"After a few years of helping and observing at A&P shows, I recall a pivotal moment driving home in the horse truck with my Dad. At age 9, I pitched the idea of breeding sheep, detailing a plan for how I’d care for them, where they would live and how the venture could benefit us both," the young entrepreneur recalled.
His father agreed, and when Mr Wilson asked for his father’s opinion on which breed — having been interested in either Suffolk or Poll Dorset, the breeds that seemed to outperform his friend’s sheep — he replied Poll Dorset.
That choice was linked to his maternal grandmother Di Murphy, who runs a 500-ewe commercial Poll Dorset flock. He figured her decades of experience would be a huge help — and he was right.
That Christmas, only weeks later, Mr Wilson received a voucher to pick any three Poll Dorset ewes from his grandmother’s farm, the gift marking the start of his Poll Dorset journey.
Four years later, he had saved enough money from his sheep venture and other work to buy 29 stud ewe lambs from Phil King and a first-pick stud ram heavily discounted to $300 from Rick Lee.
His paternal grandparents, renowned Dorset Down and Border Leicester stud breeders Tony and Jan Wilson, registered his Mt Herbert stud for him as his 13th birthday present in 2016.
"It is easy to understand why I have immense gratitude to my entire family, given that everyone in my family has had a significant part to play in establishing my stud.
"While my nana Di only has a commercial flock of Poll Dorsets, I believe she breeds the best Poll Dorsets in New Zealand, with impeccable structure and size, killing lambs before anyone else, ewe hogget year groups pregnancy scanning up to 175% and MA even greater.
"Similarly, I am supported by the stud wisdom from my other grandparents, Jan and Tony, who sold up to 250 rams a year back in the ’80s and ’90s, with Tony frequently offering many tips and tricks. And my father is an exceptional commercial Romney farmer who makes very calculated and innovative decisions."
Mr Wilson’s flock of stud ewes quickly grew to about 50 and stabilised there for about seven years, with him selling about 20 rams annually. The last few years have seen him increase his ewe flock up to 80 stud ewes with goals to meet growing demand.
"The type of sheep I have stumbled into breeding is very easy-going and commercial-like, low maintenance and sound. My weaned ewe hoggets are immediately mixed with Dad’s 800 retained hoggets where they run as a single mob under commercial conditions.
"My stud ewes are heavily pressurised where, after weaning in November, I force them to dry up by grazing beneath tree blocks — conscious of protecting the udder size, shape and health for next year — until early February where they are taken out and then begin the flushing process before mating.
"All sheep in the stud are only ever fed grass, never exposed to crop or supplementary feed. This mirrors the conditions of my ram clients’ operations."
After five years as a five-day-a-week boarder at Lindisfarne College, Mr Wilson’s family urged him to go to university, rather than going farming.
He has specialised in water quality and flood modelling aspects of civil engineering, an interest heavily related to farming and living in Hawke’s Bay where Cyclone Gabrielle hit in 2023.
"Time away at school and uni had many positive consequences with my flock. Spending up to two months at a time away from the stud, I would set stock the sheep until next time I was home to attend their needs.
"Over the past nine years, this has resulted with my sheep becoming very resilient to health and environmental challenges with ‘only the survival of the fittest’ philosophy very prevalent.
"While this system means performance likely suffered elsewhere, Mt Herbert Poll Dorsets have evolved to very rarely get fly strike or have soundness troubles, never bearings or birthing troubles nor worms, which I believe are all nice traits.
"A key challenge is to line up key farming dates such as teasing the ewes, rams in, rams out, highest concentrated lambing interval, shearing and eye muscle scanning with my university breaks."
Selling his first rams at 11, Mr Wilson remembered initially being very nervous about the process and begged his parents to come to the yards to help — but they refused.
"This forced me to mature quick and smartly.
"I also remember a buyer coming for just one ram for their lifestyle block, and they turned up with a thick wad of $20 notes and they negotiated me so far down to nearly half price, and being so young and inexperienced I never bartered back and had little respect/value for my own sheep.
"These sorts of lessons forced me to stand up for myself and my beliefs. My family have stayed out of the entire running of my flock since I started back in 2012, which was beneficial to me as I was forced to take responsibility of communicating and organising shearers, eye muscle scanners, vets, and clients, while moving the stock, collating data, controlling animal health challenges, and managing finances by myself since I was a wee kid. Being chucked in the deep end like this with my stud, prior to even becoming a teenager, forced personal growth and I am so grateful to my family for this as it has helped shaped the bloke I am today."
Mr Wilson is looking to sell about 35 two-tooth rams this year; he has a regular client base with most rams sold to steep, rough commercial farms in the Wairoa/Gisborne area, on the east coast of the North Island.
All rams are recorded on SIL and 25% of his current crop rams to sell in December this year have NZTW above 2000.
"I record rams on SIL as I consider it an aid when selling rams, however, personally in terms of data, I only make decisions based on raw data like weaning weight and muscle area, because I feel I don’t understand empirical indexes and how they are derived and believe that it is risky trusting and basing decisions on something that I don’t fully understand.
"When culling ewes or lambs, data sheets are not taken to the yards, however, my engineering background does enable me to dig into and graph some cool trends with my raw data to reflect on genetic decisions.
"Since all of my clients are large-scale commercial farmers, I often ask ram buyers what direction they may want or look for. I personally take much larger consideration for my clients’ opinions compared to empirical NZTW indexes. I have been breeding for facial eczema resistance and worm tolerance since I was 13."
Mr Wilson paid tribute to his grandmother Di Murphy, saying her support and backing was his primary motivation to continue improving and striving to breed excellent sheep.
As soon as Mt Herbert Poll Dorsets was developed, he wrote down two goals — he wanted to win a sheep of the show, with a homebred, naturally, and he wanted to have an on-farm ram auction similar to those in Australia.
"I have achieved the first goal with a ewe and lambs at foot, but I have since pivoted that goal to win a sheep of the show with a Mount Herbert ram hogget. As these goals were set by me at age 9, my goals have since developed with maturity such [that] I have added a third, to sell a stud ram hogget, as it would make me immensely proud to contribute to the wider Poll Dorset breed within New Zealand when the time is right and my sheep become worthy enough."— Allied Media
