Refining the management calendar

NSW producer David Clark says the biggest lesson he took home from the ‘It’s ewe time!’ forum he and his wife Joanne attended last year was to concentrate on the management calendar, including condition scoring at appropriate times.

The Clarks attended the forum in the hope they’d get some ideas to sharpen their management skills to help increase the profitability of their prime lamb enterprise in the midst of a difficult season. They breed crossbred lambs and finish trade lambs on their 400ha property at Gooloogong, north of Cowra in central NSW. Until recently, they ran breeding cows and steers for finishing, but have destocked the cattle due to the drought.

Their flat red country sown down to lucerne usually enjoys a 550mm average annual rainfall but last year it was 360mm.

“We’ve been able to put into practise everything we learnt,” David said.

“The forum we went to was just before we put the rams in with the ewes, which was really helpful timing.”

Tighten the joining period

The first management change David and Jo made as a result of the forum was to reduce the joining period from eight weeks down to five.

“I used to think that we’d just leave the rams in for another cycle to make sure we caught them all, but the shorter joining makes sense,” David said.

“The sheep were in good nick at joining and our scanning rates were good.

“We separated ewes carrying twins and singles this year for the first time. The singles are on stubbles and the twin carriers are living the life of luxury on better pastures and supplementary silage.

“Like everyone in central-west NSW, we’re in the middle of a drought. It was a terrible year last year – autumn was pretty patchy and we didn’t have a spring. There’s no subsoil moisture.

"We’ve got the work ahead of us still, with lambing due to start very soon, but so far it looks good. We’re aiming for at least 120% weaning rate in this tough season. We’ve done all the pre-lambing checks and the ewes are on dry licks (supplementation) and good nutrition.”

David said ‘It's ewe time!’ showed them what was possible in an enterprise comparable to theirs.

“At least we know now there’s room for improvement,” David said.

Half a day off to benefit your enterprise

David and Jo are currently running about a quarter of their normal stocking rate, and have sold all their cattle.

“Our local Elders livestock specialist David Trengrove recommended we go along to ‘It’s ewe time!’ and he’s helped us put it into practice,” David said.

“I don’t think anyone could go along to one of the forums and not learn something. I’m not a field day junky, but you pick the ones that would benefit your enterprise.

"We’re all time poor, but I think anyone can afford a morning off to learn this stuff.”

More information:‘It’s ewe time!’ is a joint initiative of MLA and Australian Wool Innovation. Forums are being held across SA (Jamestown, Karoonda and Naracoorte) from 26–28March and in Armidale, NSW, on 2 April. makingmorefromsheep.com.au/events

David Clark
E: fineview.3587@bigpond.com