Reedy Creek Lamb Finishing Project

Summary

Lamb growth rate is one of the key factors influencing the viability of a lamb finishing system and is a key to the Australian Lamb finishing industry as well as on-farm productivity and profitability. Reedy Creek Lamb Group members have been involved in pasture monitoring in the past, but have not looked at the animal side in the same detail. The group decided to undertake this project to get a benchmark of how their lambs were performing. The project aimed to measure lamb growth rates and identify key inputs and critical success factors for finishing lambs. The project was run over two years, with several demonstration sites being setup on irrigated finishing systems in the Reedy Creek region. The properties hosting demonstration sites varied between years due to the drought experienced and property sales.