THE DOMINION POST, December 8, 2011

Stopping the bus to let townies on

-By Jon Morgan

THE misty rain shrouds us in a grey dampness and in the murk the Ruahine Ranges seem to loom ever closer. The woolly ewes scamper away at the sound of the car, their fat lambs bleating beside them.
It’s a wet spring day on Robin Hilson’s farm on the dull-green rolling slopes below the ranges.
He’s a sheep man through and through, the founder of the high-profile One Stop Ram Shop, supplier of fertile and meaty finn-texel-based rams to farmers from one end of the country to the other.
But this self-confessed “sheep nutter” is turning over part of the farm to dairying. Is this . . (read full article here . . .)

HB Today, November 2011

CHB ram breeder in Brazil

-By Kate de Lautour

Sheep genetics from the One Stop Ram Shop owned by Robin Hilson have been exported to countries around the world including Australia, Chile and the USA.
Following a recent visit to Brazil, there are two new countries set to benefit from the purebred and stabilised crossbred ram providers.
Brazilians can’t get enough sheep meat.
Currently 90% of lamb is supplied to Brazil from neighbouring Uruguay and the high quality Texel or Dorper meat is reserved for those wealthy enough to afford it. . . . (read full article here . . .)

CHB Mail, FARM FOCUS, May, 2011

Dayanne's sharing a love of sheep

-By Nicki Harper

Dayanne Almeida is passionate about farming, sheep farming in particular, and for the past two years has been in New Zealand learning all she can about the industry.
Since arriving in Central Hawke's Bay from Brazil in 2009 she has been working for Robin Hilson and Joy Gray at the One Stop Ram Shop in Takapau —adding practical knowledge to her Bachelor of Animal Science degree.
She studied in Sao Paulo, and to complete her papers had to find somewhere to do a six-month internship, the pursuit of which brought her up against some frustrating attitudes amongst Brazilian farmers.
"I got a job offer from the Dorper Sheep Breeder Association in Brazil. For three months I worked there trying to do things differently. These guys are not farmers; they are businessmen who run sheep as a hobby. It's about having star sheep, which they will pay up to $500,000 for at auctions, but they are . . . (read full article here . . .)

WEEKEND HERALD, April 24, 2010

The sorry yarn of wool

-By Geoff Cumming

One of the nation's foundation industries has hit a new low with the axing of scientific efforts to boost market prospects. Geoff Cumming looks at the wool trade's ravelled lines.
The rest of the world may think of New Zealand as one big sheep farm, but even Aucklanders know the image is outdated - it's a long time since growing wool was either lucrative or a vital cog in our economy. But AgResearch's decision to cull its wools and textiles division this week and axe 35 scientists should nevertheless make townies look up from their lattes long enough . . . (read full article here . . .)

Cybele is one of the designers who have made wool trendy on the catwalk. Photo / Babiche Martens

HAWKES BAY TODAY, April 29, 2010

"Where have they all gone? "

-By Richard Hilson of Takapau

Where have all the possums gone? My family and I live and farm in the south-eastern corner of the Pukenui Possum Control Area, where our corner boundary is bordered by State Highway 50 and the Makaretu River. Our property has been well covered in bait stations for several years now, with about 70 stations on Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) coordinates and bait and contract labour costing us about $400 per annum. But we don't do a thing.

The problem is the programme has been way too successful. No longer can we find even one possum for the kids or a visitor. We still see plenty of rabbits and hares and we chase them day and night - but what about the possums? There now seems no point in looking up any of the trees around here with a spotlight. Places where we shot dozens of possums a night as kids are now just empty trees not worth an upward glance. It’s virtually impossible even to find a dead one . . . (read full article here . . .)

STRAIGHT FURROW, February 23, 2010

"Sheep numbers recovering," says breeder

-By Rob Tipa

WAIPUKURAU ram breeder Robin Hilson of the One Stop Ram Shop is a big fan of the biennial Southern Field Days at Waimumu in eastern Southland.
"I've shown sheep throughout the country, but this show is the best," he said. "It's a real pleasure for us to come down from the North Island and experience southern hospitality.
Mr Hilson said sheep had special requirements to look after them during a three-day show and he was impressed by the effort and commitment of Southern Field Days volunteers to meet those needs.
Mr Hilson is confident of a recovery in sheep numbers, despite claims by pundits to the contrary, and he proved that by bringing stock from Hawke's Bay to Southland for the field . . . . (read full article here . . .)

Waipukurau ram breeder Robin Hilson (right) at the Southern Field Days at Waimumu with One Stop Ram Shop's Invercargill agent Jeff Moss and Brazilian sheep researcher Dayanne Martins Almeida, of Sao Paulo

COUNTRY-WIDE PUBLICATIONS LTD.

Worldwide shortage of lamb good news for NZ

A worldwide shortage of sheepmeat offers real potential for growing sales of New Zealand lamb, says Robin Hilson, a director of the Texel Marketing Group and owner of the One Stop Ram Shop.
The Central Hawke’s Bay farmer is just back from a trip overseas to Scotland, Sweden, Finland, Belgium and the USA. He visited supermarkets and restaurants, finding out what the market is paying for lamb, and collecting quotes.
He says 5.6 million tonnes of sheepmeat are produced each year, but only one million tonnes is exported worldwide."New Zealand and Australia dominate that and account for at least 800,000 tonnes."
He says the market potential in the United States is huge, but full of challenges. The US, Mexico and Canada operate as a single market under the North American Free Trade Agreement. In population terms, there is more than 400 million people. The US has . . . (read full article here . . .)

Robin Hilson

RURAL CENTRAL DISTRICTS • October 2007

All-year lambing on way to becoming a reality

THE ABILITY to supply the market year-round with fresh lamb, which has reached a killable weight by weaning, would be a financial success story for any farmer.
All-year lambing is yet to be a commercial option for most farmers, but studies into the viability of putting the ram out three times a year suggest the practice will be a future reality.
Year-round lambing was first trialled by Robin Hilson, from the One Stop Ram Shop near Waipukurau, Central Hawke's Bay, in the early 1990s.
Using Finns and Texels, Robin said that they managed the programme quite well. "We produced lots of extra lambs and speeded up the generation gap, but it was very costly." The programme required many chemicals and supplementary feed. "It worked, because we got lambs on the ground, but it was very costly. You . . . (read full article here . . .)

RURAL CENTRAL DISTRICTS • October 2007

Dorper fertility ideal for lamb production

Dorpers are a South African creation, a cross between the Dorset and a Persian sheep. They are highly fertile, and the rams don't experience the fertility down-time typical of other breeds from October to December.

Waipukurau breeder Robin Hilson first encountered Dorpers in South Africa and, though he recognised they were a hardy breed, he has been surprised with just how well they have stood up to the sparse feed conditions typical on the East Coast. "Its feed required for maintenance per kilo live weight is very low compared to other breeds. "The survivability has just got . . . (read full article here . . .)