Choose to remember or choose to forget?

Well, what a year!

What has occurred in the last 12 months should engrave itself into your soul as a farmer and business manager.

A tough enough finish to the Spring and the biggest supply of lambs and sheep up for grabs, along with a live export ban and softening domestic demand made for a huge downward price for sheep meats. 

Sudden movements usually bounce back and we did see a big recovery in prices over the Summer with very useful late rain with some clearing of the oversupply of mutton and lamb.

On the positive side we saw some amazing scanning results especially with proactive farmers who know the importance of matching ewe demand and very good body condition score prior to and during joining.

A green flush during late December to February gave producers with good pastures and grazing management a huge relief with supplementary feed costs and some extra foetuses to manage. Many of our clients recorded their best ever conception rates in their careers this past season.

What followed wasn’t pretty. 

Of course we were due for a bad one? or because we had lots of Summer rain it forgot to rain in the autumn? Whatever the reason, it just decided, like the years of 2005 and 1967, the rain did not come and the “Green Triangle” wasn’t very green.

May and then June came along quickly and yet no significant breaking rains west of the Grampians. We then had the pleasure of seeing frosts for more mornings than I can remember in over a decade.

It was great to initiate a Late Break information session at West Cuyaac at Ric and Sardi Edgars which went somewhat viral. Initially I was thinking of a session for my old Bestwool Bestlamb group - that Jane Gaussen and I have taken back on to manage - which would be about 25 people, but as the demand seemed considerable we catered for 340 farmers in the end. Not bad for 10 days preparation and, in many ways, I think the best benefits were probably as much social as technically informative.

Lambing was challenging and for many of us feeding lambing ewes is not something we ever do in reliable SW Victoria. Some really innovative ideas and methods have been tested and many of these worked very well. Our local BWBL group has an upcoming session to review some of the good, bad and ugly, so to speak, and hopefully this can be recorded and used next time we get a testing season.

Most producers that have fed well and planned have come out with some very respectable lamb marking and weaning numbers and also importantly kept ewe mortality rates not far off of normal,  which has been pleasing.

Early weaning has been on the agenda as we are all chasing extra leaf area to get pasture growth rolling. Ewe condition has been drained and we need to relieve competition quickly from the paddock by separating ewes from lambs in a planned, well orchestrated, manner whereby lambs are allocated optimum quality and quantity with ewes relieved of lactation. Lambs are very well grain trained and I think if you have planned your weaning paddocks well then early weaning is such a great option to allocate and conserve feed appropriately.

Water is the elephant in the room in many areas. Like fertiliser, pastures and grazing management, water is integral to a livestock business and you reap what you sow. Not investing in one of the key ingredients of your business will leave you in an awkward situation of having to deal with carting water or destocking parts of the farm.

Both are very costly and both can be easily avoided in many instances by investing in sufficient water capacity and infrastructure that enable your business to be insulated in dry times. It's now August and the chances of replenishing dams with a very dry soil profile is less than 5%.

Some planning now might prevent forced decisions later which, when under stress, can be during a distressed market. We all know that the businesses that recover the fastest post tough seasons can make the most of livestock rebuilding markets when the seasons come back to normal. Remember often: 70% -80% of our profits in farming can come from 20-30% of the years.

Rams

Exciting times for our ram selling season as we have some great genetics on offer. We have used the services yet again of Next Gen Agri to assist in data analysis and we have also engaged an independent to fine tune the key structural aims of the stud flock.

We enjoy placing heavy scrutiny on our animals’ ability to perform under high stocking rate pressures. We have routinely undertaken this approach since our inception as a seed stock producer back in 2006. In turn, this has put us well ahead over time in producing animals that have fantastic longevity.

We are proud of this reputation and we firmly believe that the tougher you breed them it enables our clients to buy with confidence. New ram purchases should always go forward and produce progeny that can also perform under true commercial environments such as seasons like 2024.

Unfortunately this cannot be said broadly across industry where rams can be treated like kings on self feeders and grown out to excessive adult weights. This will mask and enable poorer doing animals to slide into sale pens and out onto commercial farms where they may find the commercial realities have them come unstuck.  

Our sale team will be on video, live streamed and integrated on Auctions Plus. Join us on grand final eve and enjoy the catering and hospitality at Team Paradoo Prime on Friday, September 27.