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.