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.