Location: Cowra, NSW
Property area: 500 ha (1,235 acres)
Enterprise: Poll Dorset and White Suffolk rams and cropping
Enterprise targets:
- Clean up lucerne paddocks for grass free paddocks for weaned lambs
- Wean the winter lambs early, and maximise weight in weaned lambs before summer
- Avoid the bulge in lamb supply but capture some of the high lamb prices
- Aim to get DSE/grazing ha down to below 11 by the end of November unless the season improves
- Preventively control stripe rust in the cereal crops
Goals: To be a successful and sustainable mixed farmer
Livestock: 700 adult ewes, 270 hogget ewes, 250 ram hogget’s and 150 lambs
Pastures: Predominantly Lucerne base, tall fescue and clover
Soil types: Sandy loam
Annual rainfall: 600mm
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19 January 2009
As to be expected, it has turned hot and dry again. The lucerne is rapidly drying off and losing leaf, so there won't be much value there without substantial rain. The lucerne paddocks are still very dry in the subsoil, and it just doesn't seem to grow like it used to, particularly the older stands which are still quite dense. We seem to have a good strike in the undersown pasture again this year thanks to rain in the late spring. Don't know how much fescue and clover will be there, but the lucerne is good. It makes paddocks so much more productive if you can get a solid base of pasture in the first year, rather than having to baby them through the second year.
We have sold some more lambs, but it now looks like we will have to finish the remainder on grain. Joining starts this week, and while the ewes are in reasonable condition, there is a percentage lighter than I would like for getting twins. Drafting the ewes into fats and skinnies helped get the lesser conditioned ewes up a bit before joining. Our summer drench was very effective, and worm egg counts on the ewes and ewe lambs a month after drenching were still zero. We are using urea blocks in the stubbles, and feeding a few lupins to a couple of AI groups.
Our stocking rate across the whole farm is about where it traditionally is at this time of year, but we don't have any bulk of dry feed looking into the autumn, so will continue to try and lighten the numbers off a bit. We have tried to maintain our stocking rate right through the drought, but I am finding it increasingly difficult as there has been a gradual decrease in the composition of our pastures and their ability to respond to limited rainfall. Once again the very ordinary spring meant there was very little sub-clover seed set. Six years ago we almost had too much clover, and now after 3 failed springs, there is almost none. We tried spreading a mix of clovers in a new pasture paddock last winter to put some clover back, and it will be interesting to see if this has been successful.
For the first time in many years, the best gross margins from the cropping program were from canola.
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23 December 2008
50mm of rain from the 12-15th December has changed the outlook somewhat. It is hard to believe we have actually had slightly above average rainfall since September, given how short the spring was. The rain has freshened up all the lucerne, and the fodder rape has come back really well and should produce almost as much grazing the second time around. I still have my doubts as to whether it is a cost effective option, and will have to wait and see how much production we really get off it. The ram lambs have done quite well off it. They were scanned for fat and eye muscle this week, with the heaviest weighing in at 75 kg. Not bad for June/July drops, which have also been allowed to get wormy for selection for worm egg count. Last week we collected individual fecal samples for worm counts from these rams and the worm burdens ranged from 0 to over 6000, so there is plenty of scope for selection. We have included worm egg count breeding values in our selection index.
There was a lot of wheat shelled out in some of the crops, and with the rain, this has germinated so the stubbles are looking green. Our dse/ha is about where I would like it to be now that the harvest is completed, although I would like to have a bit more condition on the ewes before joining in about a months time. We have drafted the ewes into fats and skinnies to try and get a bit more onto the skinnies by giving them first go at the stubbles.
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4 December 2008
We are about two thirds through harvest, and no weather damage to the grain. We have been surprised with the performance of the canola, and a bit disappointed with the wheat. It has been a mixed bag of quality and yield, with a bit of hail, and quite a bit of shattered grain on the ground. Probably the worst I have seen. There will be a lot of self sown wheat when it rains again.
The November rain freshened the lucerne up, and the fodder rape has shot out again after looking almost dead 2 weeks ago. Some lamb sales and a reasonably solid cull of the ewes has meant we have got the dse/ha back to where we would like to be for the start of summer, and the prospects for at least a bit of feed off the lucerne and rape are reasonable. I am feeling more comfortable about that now. The price of grain versus the price for lambs has certainly made grain finishing more attractive.
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6 November 2008
The season has turned pear-shaped at Greenethorpe with the crops coming in very early and the canola already windrowed, about 2 weeks ahead of normal. Years of below average rainfall have depleted subsoil moisture, and the crops and pastures needed a lot more rain than we have received, especially when it turns hot early. Growing season rainfall this year was 257mm which is only 7mm more than last year, and about our average for the last 7 years.
This week has been a bit cooler, and 8mm of rain was a relief, even if it won't really make much difference to the crops.
We sold some lambs last week, and while prices are back on the highs a few months ago, it was still a reasonable return for this time of year, and with the spring finished. We are aiming to sell another draft (or 2) off the lucerne before shearing the remainder. The ram and ewe lambs have been shorn, and we are just introducing the ram lambs to the fodder rape, which is hanging on, hopefully for the forecasted rain this week.
There has been some demand for rams which has been good. The August/September drop lambs will be weaned this week. Our stocking rate (click here to find out more about MLA's Stocking rate calculator) is still a little high, but harvest and stubble paddocks are not too far off.
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22 October 2008
Our 12 month rolling rainfall is only 30mm short of our long term average of 600mm, as last November / December were quite wet. Rainfall for the calendar year 2008 to date is 386mm, while growing season rainfall is 257mm, only slightly more than last year.
The hot winds in early October have taken a bit of yield off the crops. In some of the earlier paddocks the barley grass is dropping, making them unsuitable for lambs. We should have enough clean paddocks to keep the lambs on, and growing well. The canola was sprayed this week (a bit late as planes are in demand) for aphids and heliothis. There are some reports of frost damage in some canola crops around Greenethorpe, but our higher sloping country has missed the damage. The stripe rust seems to be under control.
At about 12.8 dse/ha, our stocking rate is still well above my target level for this time of year, but the rainfall has helped produce more dry matter so it hasn't been a problem. It does mean that I won't be making any hay or silage - we still have a lot of hay from last season in the shed, and think the lambs are more of a priority at the moment. We are still adjusting our management to suit the change in lambing times - we no longer lamb any ewes in the autumn, which has reduced our requirement for supplementary feeding, but put more pressure on having good pastures at the end of spring. Being a purely seedstock sheep enterprise, its not that easy to reduce numbers at this time of year. We have culled pretty much back to the number of ewes we want to join next year. The high lambing percentages have given us an excellent opportunity to put selection pressure on the young rams and ewe lambs for performance, particularly keeping birthweight moderate, and we will be taking out the bottom 15-20% of the ewe lambs this week. I am using a new selection index using Lambplan ASBVs which optimises birthweight, as well as putting emphasis on growth rate, muscle and worm egg count.
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29 September 2008
We have been lucky enough to get under some rain about every 7 -10 days for the last month. However, we are still very much looking for the next rain after a week or so. Interestingly our 12 month rolling rainfall is starting to look closer to average due to the wet summer, while our growing season rainfall April to October inclusive) is actually lower than last year. Pastures are still a bit slow, but are taking off (click here to find out more about MLA's Rainfall to Pasture Growth Outlook tool). We have weaned all the June/July drop lambs, and have culled some ewes which averaged about $55. Our stocking rate is still up on where we optimally like to be, we're sitting at about 13.25 dse/ha (click here to find out more about MLA's Stocking rate calculator). We are culling more ram lambs than usual because of the high lambing percentage. This is allowing us to put more pressure on birth weight breeding values, and end up with better rams for sale next year.
The paddock of fodder rape is growing well, but still probably 5 -6 weeks of being ready to graze. I'm not really convinced that for this area it is the right option as the paddock is out of the system for too long, but it will depend on the quality of the feed. The fodder rape does give us a disease break option for grazing wheat next year.
I have sprayed most of the wheat for stripe rust, including varieties which are "supposed to be resistant". Most of our wheat has the flag leaf out, with the first heads starting to emerge, so it is at the optimum stage to spray. The crops look pretty good, so although there isn't a huge level of rust at present, there is some, and this spray will give us 3-4 weeks protection of the important leaves. There is a light infestation of aphids in the canola which will need monitoring.
Progress towards meeting enterprise targets-
- I still optimistically have a paddock of lucerne locked up for silage or hay, but this will depend on whether we keep getting rain, because I almost certainly will need the clean paddock for the lambs.
- We have weaned all the June/July drop lambs.
- Our stocking rate is still up on where we optimally like to be, we're sitting at about 13.25 dse/ha.
- I have sprayed most of the wheat for stripe rust.
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8 September 2008
We had 14.5mm on the 31 August / 1 Sept which helped the crops and gave the pastures a boost, but paddock feed is still looking pretty short. Another 11mm on the 6 September will help a lot. Lambing has nearly finished, and we will end up with our best percentage ever. We don’t want to be carrying too many stock through what looks to be a less than average spring, and due to the high lambing rate we will be weaning and culling ewes early. Our DSEs/grazing ha are right at the top end of where we would like to be at this time of year, at about 13DSE per grazing hectare for the beginning of September, but I am only scoring pastures at 4 out of 10. We sowed a paddock of fodder rape in mid July which has germinated well.
The Gibberellic acid gave the dry matter an initial boost and although it looks like there is considerably more feed, I feel it is just taller and not that dense. I will definitely try it again but earlier on in the year around mid July. I think I need to pick appropriate paddocks better and graze them a bit harder 3 weeks after application to encourage more growth and stop the grasses moving towards heading. I struggled with that this year due to the cold conditions and I was trying to save the feed at the time for the rams and weaned lambs. We weaned the first group of lambs on 4 September, and were pretty happy with the weights given, averaging 30kg at 70 days.
We had our on property ram sale on the 2 September which was a success selling 144 Poll Dorset and White Suffolk rams for an average of $860. Clearance and average were up on last year. Rams mostly sell within a radius of 100km with one buyer operating for 2 properties taking home 31 rams.
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11 August 2008
The June/July lambing has finished and we are finishing marking at the moment. We joined in January and after a wet summer the ewes were in prime condition; consequently our lambing rate is up about 40% from last year.
The canola is putting up flowers but the frosts and cold snaps have held its growth back. The rest of the place is looking green but the feed isn’t taking off yet because of the cold overcast weather. We have put out superphosphate on about two thirds of the pasture paddocks, to keep feed in front of the extra lambs. We aim try to do most paddocks two out of three years.
I am also doing a trial with Gibberellic acid, which helps boost the dry matter production. Within a week there is a difference, visually the amount of leaf area appears to have doubled. The pasture needs to be rested for another couple of weeks to allow the pasture quality to equalise. It is anticipated that the application could result in an extra 1000 kg/ha of dry matter at the end of winter.
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18 July 2008
There was a very cold change last week and we got 23mm of rain. This year we have had only one month of above average rainfall which was in February and since 2002 using a 12 month rolling average, we have only had 2 months of above average rainfall. Last week we did some deep soil testing and there is good subsoil moisture so we are well setup for the season as long as it keeps raining. Most people are fairly confident.
We have finished supplementary feeding and have a fair number of sheep on grazing crops. We recently marked 150% lambs out of the first group, which is 30% more than last year.
The canola looks about 3 weeks ahead of where it normally is with full ground cover and starting to run up and about to start flowering, hopefully the cold snap last week will slow it up a bit.
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2nd July 2008
Our place is set up for a reasonable season. I have shut the sheep into a few paddocks and have been supplementary feeding for the last 6 weeks up until lambing started 2 weeks ago, which has provided a pretty good base in the rest of the place for winter.
This area is pretty reliable for growing crops. We ended producing more hay than expected from failed crops last year so we have a pretty good supply of hay as well as some grain. The joining season was pretty good with good rainfall over the summer putting them in good condition. I am expecting the lambing percentage to be pretty high this season.
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