A visit to a previous monitor farm

This visit included two farms run by two brothers. They run both farms as a unit together. They keep Romney ewes and put a Suffolk, Dorset or Hampshire rams on them. They also keep cattle, Friesian cross Angus and put a Charolais bull on them. They also rare dairy heifers. Sheep are not fed any concentrates or conserved forage. Cattle are fed silage over the winter when needed. Mainly to keep lambing paddocks for the sheep. The sheep are set stocked for 6-8 weeks over lambing. 

They are currently weaning lambs and have already sold 60% of the lambs before weaning. 
It was interesting to see how well the dogs worked in the handling pens and the setup of the handling pens.

While discussing the monitor farm they were really pleased with how this worked and how it really helped them move forward. The steering group and attendees at the meeting gave lots of good ideas. Some not so good and they felt it was up to them to pick out what suited them and the farm. They both said one of the best things about being a monitor farm was all the tests they did as part of it and the contact they had with the vet. The terrain of this farm was again very steep and difficult to get around with all spraying done with a helicopter and fertiliser applied with a plane.

Visit to a Romney stud farm

This stud farm had 15,000 sheep in total, spread over three farms. He also has cattle and buys in store lambs. He exports rams and semen all round the world including the UK. His motto is work smarter not harder. He sells a few hundred rams every year over a period of around 10days. They are all recorded and the current focus is on muscle and rams tolerant to facial eczema. Some people have lost a considerable amount of sheep due to this. The rams are just fed grass. They will be brought down to the flats from the hill for a few weeks before selling just to make them look a little more presentable. They are drenched only three times in the year and weighed every 6 weeks with the bottom performing ones taken out every 6 weeks. They scan at 165%. They make sure the ewes have plenty of grass and move them every 2-3 days pre tupping and during tupping. He only lost 7 ewes from a group of 1,900 last year during lambing. On the flats he gets DLWG of up to 320kg compared to nearer 150kg DLWG on the hills. At weaning the lambs are sorted in to weight batches and the ones nearest finishing are put on the flats and then the next nearest are moved on to the flats etc. He plants forage crops to finish lambs, maize to feed silage outside to sheep and called chicory and plantain rocket fuel for finishing lambs.

There are quite a lot of feral goats on the farm and he said these are essential to control the weeds. A neighbour culled all the coats on the neighbouring farm and had real problems with weeds growing back. The setup of the farm is excellent as all the hill paddock run into the central lane on the bottom of the valley leading to the handling facilities and wool shed. To spray or fertilise the hills its all done by helicopter or plane.

New Zealand

I managed to arrive in NZ just in time for Christmas to spend Christmas day with some fellow Welsh people in TeKuiti. However it didn't feel much like Christmas.

NZ is very different to Australia in terms of landscape and farming methods. The fields are very heavily stocked and dairy cattle are everywhere.

I then moved down to Taumaruniu and arranged to go out with a shearing gang the next day. This meant getting up at 4.30 as they leave soon after 5. I learnt a lot about the way wool is treated and sorted this day at this Romney stud farm. The Romney ewes were very big and stubborn and the presser had a difficult job filling the pens with his dog and pressing the wool.

My last Australian visit - An abattoir

My last Australian meeting was with the production manager of an abattoir and he kindly showed me around the abattoir. The abattoir kills 5200 each day. Around 50% is currently exported. It used to be more, nearer 80%. They are EU approved and some goes to the EU. A lot goes to china. Lambs come in to the lairage 24-48hrs before. They have to come in 6-8hrs before slaughter so rarely come in that morning. There is a large lairage area and 15 paddocks. The major differences I noticed to UK abattoirs were the use of dogs in the lairage, the security is not quite as strict and the attention given to the skins. The skins are sorted to 3 ways to start off and then they are treated and then sorted up to 30 different ways depending on wool length, type/breed e.g. merino or crossbred, if there are any skin cuts, any grass seeds in it etc. The biggest markets for the skins are China and Russia, and most of the offal goes to Saudi. I was also surprised that the muck under the layarage is sold to be mixed with woodchip to sell as an organic product.  

Near the abattoir is a Stockyard (livestock market) and I was surprised how there were no barriers or gates between the stockyard and the road and no biosecurity. Most of the market is hardcore/chippings or grass with only a little bit of concrete in the lorry wash area. I was surprised by the large number of trees in it, but I guess these are needed for shade. Near here there were also three agriculture merchants. These stores do everything from selling feed and animal health products to trading wool, insurance, financial advice and estate agents.

A visit to a farm in Walcha, New South Wales

Again this farm is very large over 2500 acres with 2500 Superfine Merinos which is a self-replacing flock. 200-350 of the older ewes are mated to Border Leicester and Dorsets to produce prime lambs. There are also flocks of Poll Dorsets (400 ewes) and Border Leicesters (150 ewes) to produce rams. It initially started to produce rams for their own flock but it has grown and they are now selling over 200 rams in February. Selection is aimed at producing prime lambs that have low birth weight, yet high growth rate to allow early sales of lambs that have large loins with a fat covering to enable quick turn off and enhanced meat eating quality. As well as selecting animals with worm resistant qualities, mothering ability, early milking, lamb survival and early sexual maturity. 40% of the income for the sheep flock comes from the rams. 16% of income comes from the skin and wool. 
Lambing on this farm is managed intensively for good records and to remove any poor mothers. Twin bearing ewes are separated to feed accordingly. The twins are mostly fed grains pre lambing. Mainly to get through the August period when they used to have grass but the season is getting latter (probably by a month). They have a hard culling policy on the farm. About 10% are culled at weaning to remove genetic faults and at yearling stage another 10% are removed for lower performances and anything not structurally right. Also the lowest indexing ewes are culled.

The farm also currently run 150 Angus cattle supplying feeder steer market. They sell the cattle to feedlots depending on the availability of grass and the money. The money was good this year and calves were sold 6 weeks earlier. Sometimes calves are sold through saleyards. They always purchase high performing Breedplan Angus bulls on the B3 index with bull selection focused on low birth weight, high 600 day weight, IMF and carcass weight. The herd is EU with the aim of moving across to selling oat fatten EU steers in the future. They really only keep cattle to keep the grass down. Cattle are fed a lick of molases, urea, concentrates to get them through the winter.

Issues that have recently cropped up are the changing rainfall pattern receiving rain different times of year and the length of time between rain can cause shortage of grass. Foxes and Dingo’s are issues and the usual health issues worm’s, fly’s and lice. They work hard to keep Johnne’s and Brucellosis out by keeping a closed flock. They have not seen footrot on the farm for 30years. They carry out worm samples for the breeding programme and carry out drench resistance tests yearly. 120 acres of fodder crops are planted each year to finish lambs and steers on. The growing rams also utilise about half of the fodder crops. A very interesting system with each flock complementing each other.

A day with a Sheep Meat Product Development Officer

As you have probably guessed I have had a few IT problems and have lots to update. Monday 19th December, I spent a day with a sheep meat production development officer. We visited two farms, met a wool inspector for lunch and had a quick look round a research farm. A busy day. The first farm we visited was just outside Guyra. The farm has increased in size quickly over the last 20years. From 1200 acres in 1990 to its current acreage, 4500 acres. I found the scale of this enterprise very interesting with very few staff. Only 1 worker. The farm currently carries 5000 ewes, buying in first cross Merinos (Merino cross Border Leicester) lambs at 8 months to tup them at 12-13months old to lamb in September. These mark at 80-100% and the main flock mark at 150%. He also has a few hundred cows and runs 800 bullocks. He aims to sell 30-50% lambs by weaning and all by winter (April). The average deadweight is between 21-23kg (48-50kg liveweight). He occasionally supplies lambs for export 24-26kg (55kg liveweight). They are mostly sold by the truck load, so either 440 or 660 at a time. Sometimes he might take 20-30 to the stockyard at Guyra if he wants to move them e.g. just before weaning. I was surprised to hear that 50% of animals in Australia go through the market. I asked what his biggest problems are, he said foxes. His marking percentage has dropped 10% and he thinks it’s mostly due to foxes. He thinks it’s because most people in the area only have cattle and they are not doing anything about them. Another issue is Barbars pole worm. This farmer has a very good net margin and I was trying to work out how he does this and I think its through good grassland management. He is currently not feeding his ewes at all before lambing. He closes lambing plots up a while before.  I asked what he thinks is the answer to a good system and he said mixed grazing. He’s currently got 65 cows and 65 calves on 80 acres to prepare it for lambs after weaning and the cattle are not getting on top of it.

The second farm visit between Guyra and Glenn Innes was up a very long dirt track and I was wondering where we were going. This farm also runs first cross Merino’s (2,800 ewes). They are border or white Suffolk cross and he crosses them with the Poll Dorset. He buys cattle in on the auction plus website to manage grass over the summer. He destocks the cattle over the winter. The ewes on this farm scan at 170%+ and marks at around 150%. The replacements are nearer 90% lambing rate. He feels that its essential to scan to feed them correctly and get rid of the barrens. Not everyone in the area is scanning. The ewes are shorn 4 months pre lambing with a covercomb. Lambs under 40kg at weaning are shorn as they wont be sold for 6-8weeks and the wool will grow back to a reasonable length before slaughter.

Then over lunch we had a good general discussion about the beef and sheep industry in the area and Australia. The wool inspector also farms 5000 acres. Most cattle are sent to feedlots. It's only the cull cows that go direct to abattoir. There are many cattle and lamb feedlots in the are some of which are owned by processors. I asked about the main issues and they said foot abscesses this year because it’s been so wet after a 10yr drought. Barbers pole is another big issue and predators. Dingos are such a problem in some areas that people can't keep sheep. We discussed wool prices and he said that the crossbred wool is now nearly worth as much as the superfine Merinos. Crossbred ewes are considerably more expensive to purchase. However the systems that have the best gross margin are mostly farmers with Merinos with terminal sires.  The final meeting of the day was a visit around a research site. There are now very few staff working there mainly due to staff retiring or leaving and not being replaced. One trial currently going on is that 27 local farms send 10 weathers there for performance analysis. The 270 weathers are run for 3yrs and their fleece value and carcass weight are monitored. I was surprised to see that there is one area of plots (Maize rotation plots been running since 1921 . A lot of Fescue and white clover breeding has been carried out there. We discussed what is in the typical New England grass mix and it included fescue, coxsfoot, phalaris, red clover, white clover and sub clover. I certainly learnt a lot about Australian agriculture this day.

Weekend along Waterfall Way to Coffs Harbour

With my weekend off I decided to head over to Coffs Harbour to do a few tourist things. On my way, there were plenty of opportunities for sight seeing along waterfall way, Wollomombi Gorge, Ebor falls and the Rainforest centre. Within an hour from Armidale the land changed quickly and it was obvious the climate is quite different not that far away. The fields appeared much greener, a lot less grass with probably better grassland management. However as soon as I left Armidale I so very few sheep, it was mostly cattle with a few dairy farms. I also so someone big baling and quite a few big bale stacks around. Forage conservation must be more popular in this area.

Methane emission monitoring field plots

The big issue that hit the Australian news today is that Indonesia is going to stop taking the 520 thousand cattle currently exported live from Australia. This is a huge concern the Northern Australian Cattle industry where there is no abattoir.
Moving on to my days activities. I visited the research plots that the methane work has been carried out on. The 18 plots are 2.2ha each. 9 plots are considered productive/improved areas and 9 less productive. There are 3 lots of 32 ewes on the more productive area (96 ewes) and 3 lots of 16 ewes on the less productive areas. The 3 high productive groups are rotated around the 9 more productive plots every month, and 3 three less productive flocks are rotated around the 9 less productive plots every month. Every month they are weighed and condition scored and WEC are taken every 2 weeks to look for variation in different areas. Pasture assessments are also carried out e.g. amount pasture available and the botanical composition e.g. live/dead material, amount of legumes etc. Moisture and nitrous oxide is also recorded in all paddocks. Weeds is a considerable problem this year as it’s been so wet and they would usually slash them (top) but it’s been too wet to slash. When I asked how high they slash I was surprised the answer was a foot!

Spectrophotometer's have been set up on these plots to measure methane from the sheep grazing them. These are inferred cameras that certainly proved that only sheep emit methane emissions on the paddocks, as soon as the sheep were removed there were no emissions.                                                                       I was also surprised that they have not treated the ewes and lambs to prevent them from blowfly strike as it’s been too wet and they are concerned about the product leeching straight out of the wool! To me it does not seem that wet! However due to the wet weather the rotational grazing system has gone slightly wrong with issues getting over the creek ewes have been grazing the road/pathways and have now been turned into plots with other ewes. Some plot areas have been reduced by half because of water lakes appearing.                                                                                                                                                                   I was interested by their weaning method. Lambs from one bunch of ewes are moved to another bunch of ewes e.g. Flock 1 lambs go to flock 2 ewes, Flock 2 lambs go to flock 3 ewes. This reduces the stress on the lambs and they come on a lot faster. I asked if this had any effect on the ewes and they said it had no effect on the ewes.                                                                                                                 I was also surprised to hear him say a flock of weathers is kept there just to keep roadways and the spare plot grazed to help people see snakes!

Visit to Stud farm & another research site

Australia's sheep industry has a dual purpose wool and meat. On many farms up to 70% of farms income comes from wool. It is only in more recent years that people have started crossing the Merino's with terminal sires e.g. Dorsets, Suffolk, Border Leicester.

The sheep stud I visited this morning is a Poll Dorsets sheep stud producing 60+ rams sold on farm. It was obvious it was all about figures and thats what the customers are looking for are performance figures. They select for early fast growing lambs to have as many as possible lambs ready for slaughter by weaning. Lambs are mostly sold with deadweights of 23-25kg at up to 8 months. I was really surprised that not huge rams can produce fat lambs this quickly with good carcass weights.
There are a number of selection parameters performance and visual. Many buyers are looking for low WEC and good growth weights.

The second meeting of the day was at a research site focusing on GHG emissions. The majority of the discussion revolved around the two new pieces of legislation that have recently come out in Australia. The Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) policy and the Clean Energy futures. This allows a mechanism for landowners to offset carbon through mechanisms such as sequestration, improve soil carbon, plant trees, less methane, less nitrogen etc. The idea is that landowners will be able to generate carbon credit units that they can trade with poluters. However the accepted methadology must be followed and some of these have not been finalised yet as this only came in on 1st December.
Various way of reducing emissions was discussed e.g. improving efficiency, reduce methane  emissions, improve manure management, sequestration of soil carbon etc. However allocation of carbon credits will not be as straight forward as this. The aim of the CFI is to reduce emissions intensity. Improving efficiency may not count but if there is more product and less animals it might count.

Meetings at UNE to discuss GHG's

It was interesting to listen to a background of the issues in Australia and how farmers are often blamed for water quality and water flows. It is thought that GHG emissions will be added to this list and the main reason for research in this area. 
There are a number of ways to reduce GHG's, many with economic benefits such as more productive systems to reduce emissions per kg meet produced e.g. multiples rather than singles and reducing time to slaughter. Other things that have been tried and tested to reduce methane emissions are rumen manipulation tanins, legumes, oils, limiting protozoa etc. Some commercial companies are also trying to produce products to reduce methane emissions.   The university has been looking at reducing methane emissions by genetic selection. It is thought that there is about 10% variation, maybe 30% when management and feed is controlled. They have also found a variation in rumen size and volume in these animals.

After all this science it was nice to go out to Gara falls. Just 15min out of town with spectacular views, I was surprised we were the only people there on such a lovely evening. During the drive out we discussed a lot about the Australian sheep and beef industry and I was surprised by the high stocking rates and the quantity of grass with most fields with grass 1-3ft. In some fields you could hardly see the cattle! Apparently this is rare as they have had such a good growing year after many years of drought. More kangaroos were spotted and as we discussed the Australian wildlife I was informed it is as common to see snakes as kangaroos. Kangaroos two days in a row! Not looking forward to the other 2 days in a row. 

Kirby research site

My visit to Kirby research site today started to feel a little like home. As i drove down the road and sheep were coming to meet me. However these merino's and merino crosses look a little different to Welsh sheep 
It was interesting to hear that ewes and lambs are fed concentrates and feeding purchased feed e.g. lupins and grains is a preferred and cheaper option than conserving forage. Silage and hay have been made in the past to feed over the winter months and is considered a very expensive option. Therefore is no longer practised.

Considerable amount of selection work is carried out here as part of the Information nucleus. I was shocked to hear that there are 250 selection traits available, from the quality of wool to the quality of the meat and growth rates and survivability.

They did have a very good measurement book created by MLA which is an easy quick tool for recording scores for various traits on a scale of 1-5.

The site also carries out sire evaluation .

I was impressed to see the electronic weighing system weighs 400 per hour with only one man operating and ewes or lambs can be shed up to 9 different ways. However three is more typically used.

Something else that is used is a voluntary weighing system set up in a way that animals have to go through it to get to feed or water. This is considered useful in areas that the animals are not convenient to gather and bring in to the handling pens.

Something else that is currently being looked at on the research farm is animal tracking that shows the grazing behaviour of animals and when they might need to be moved.

I enjoyed my tour of the research farm and it was interesting to see that so much recording is done on such a large scale. The 5 kangaroo's bouncing along in front of me when I was visiting a field of sheep also contributed to my enjoyable day.

Armidale at last

After considerable time travelling I have finally reached Armidale, NSW, Australia and had my first fact finding meeting at the University of New England.

The long flight was not the most enjoyable with a considerable amount of turbulence from Dubai to Sydney, The very short amount of time to change flights in Dubai also caused a little stress and panic. Luckily there were a number of us on the flight that were doing the same change over and the airport staff were very helpful showing us the way and getting us to jump ques. I could get used to that.
When I finally reached Sydney I was glad to reach the hotel and go straight to sleep, as it was evening it helped me get straight in to the Sydney time zone. After an enjoyable day in Sydney I got on the road to start the long drive to Armidale.
I decided to have a stop over at Newcastle to break the 6.5hr drive. Having done over 2 hrs driving on long straight roads I thought I would have time for some sight seeing on my way to Armidale to break the remaining 4.5hr drive the next day. However with a few stops and a few scenic routes it seemed to take me nearly 6hrs from Newscastle to Armidale passing very few cars, few towns and few farms I often wondered if I was on the correct road.

After spending a few days on the plane and in the city this seemed extreme and I was very excited to see cattle and sheep. It was obvious that Cattle are the dominant species in the areas I was driving through. It was only as I got nearer Armidale I started to see Sheep.
Then when I finally arrived at my B&B in Armidale I was pleased to see it was an alpaca farm, a very friendly country B&B.
Moving on to my first meeting at the University of New England it was interesting to see the considerable focus agriculture has in the university and the support students get to study agricultural courses, which highlighted the importance of agriculture in Australia. I found it very interesting to see degrees such as Agriculture Biosecurity, Managing change and a combined degree in Agriculture and Law available for students.

When I was directed to the Wool shed I was wondering if I was being directed to where some practical research was going on. However the Wool shed is in fact an office block with a display of an old wool shed in the foyer.
The main objective of the meeting was to discuss the Information Nucleus with the Sheep CRC (Co-operative Research Centre).  The Information Nucleus consists of a series of flocks located at 8 research sites in widely differing environments across Australia. The information nucleus provides new information about traits and their genetic makeup. New traits include the horn-poll prediction, dressing percentage, lean meat yield and eating quality (intramuscular fat). The traits have been assigned Research breeding values (RBV's) which support the Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBV's). It was also interesting to hear about other selection parameters such as lamb survival.
Discussing this project led to wider discussion about the Australian Sheep Industry and its changing times with the focus moving from wool to meat and wool preferably without loosing the quality wool. Many farmers are now using crosses such as Blueface Leicester, South Down, Dorper, Hampshire etc
Other research discussed included the CARLA test to identify the animals immunity to parasites and work looking at other causes of parasite systems e.g. scouring, dags and ill thrift.
To conclude my first meeting I felt there is a lot that can be learnt from Australia but there are some things that Welsh farmers are very good at and Australia could learn some things from Wales.
I also found it interesting to see a commercial advert for a wormer randomly appearing while watching the TV this evening. I wonder what the general public in the UK would think of this appearing in the middle of their favourite soap. Again this highlights the importance of Agriculture in Australia.