Michael Potter

Growing up a shearer’s son in the country town of Kojonup WA, I was on farms and in shearing sheds from a very early age. After a stint as a butcher and then in the automotive industry, I turned to feedlotting –which proved to be a huge learning experience and shaped my career in this industry.

After five years spent learning the finer points of breeding sheep from some knowledgeable studstock veterans on a poll merino stud farm, I accepted a job with Rhodes on the Boyup Brook farm. 

I now ensure our animals are first and foremost structurally sound while also utilising the latest science and technological information available to produce animals of the highest quality. 

Goals for our White Suffolk stud are to produce even, uncomplicated, fast-growing rams that when joined with cull merinos will give no birthing trouble and high lamb percentages. Ewe survival is of utmost importance as is the ability to have many fast-growing lambs on the ground that finish early and yield well.

I genuinely enjoy the challenge of breeding these animals and selecting rams for certain groups of ewes and seeing the results of genetics mixing together and what they grow into.