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.