History

The Glen Devon property has been under Hart family ownership for over 100 years, with Rob and Helen being the third generation and now Lachlan and Mileah the fourth to farm at Glen Devon. Lachlan’s and Mileah’s daughters Eliza and Isobel are the fifth generation of Harts to tread these reddish brown soils, 8km north west of Two Wells on the Adelaide Plains.

Rob’s father, the late LR (Les) Hart first ventured into Dorset breeding in 1925 when he founded a Dorset Horn stud. He also commenced the Glen Devon Poll Dorset stud in 1959, so 2016 sees Glen Devon’s 91st year of involvement with Dorsets and 57th year of Poll Dorset breeding.

In conjunction with the Poll Dorsets, Glen Devon is a broadacre farm growing cereals for grain and hay, plus legumes and canola in the cropping rotations. Minimum tillage technology has been adopted. The pastures are medic based, with some dryland lucerne also grown.
As the flock’s fertility and reproductive efficiency improved over the years to over 140% lambs weaned, lesser breeding ewes were needed to adequately supply ram demand, thus the cropping area has been expanded accordingly.

The immediate area once had a huge sheep production and thousands of prime lambs would hit the markets each spring from the Adelaide Plains, Lower North and Yorke Peninsula. Big multi-vendor ram sales were held at Pooraka and Paskeville to satisfy commercial lamb producer demand. Land use in all these areas has radically changed, with cropping dominating, plus market gardening now very close to Glen Devon. As the areas of demand have changed, so has Glen Devon and we now service a loyal client base in all areas of SA and the Victorian Mallee.

Merino wethers were once traded, but with stud animal health biosecurity measures now needed and implemented, especially for OJD, this trading was ceased and the Poll Dorset stud sits at 400 breeding ewes including some hoggets.