Jason Trompf shows how it’s done at home in Victoria’s North East

THIS North East farming family has plenty of aces up its sleeve, writes FIONA MYERS

Trompf card the perfect pick

CONSULTANT Jason Trompf understands as much as anyone the challenges of driving farm productivity in a highly variable climate.

He also knows that any advice needs to be good if it is to aid with this challenge.

Together with his wife, Penny, and three children, they farm about 500ha in the Greta Valley of Victoria’s North East.

And Jason, who is probably best known for fronting livestock industry conferences as a keynote speaker, is equally at home on the motorbike mustering sheep or weighing lambs.

Both Jason and Penny studied agricultural science at La Trobe University, and the evidence of their keen minds and willingness to be objective about their farm business is clear.

It overrides every decision they make. The Trompfs run about 10,000 dry sheep equivalents on their farms in the North East, a mix of sheep and cattle.

They run one farm in conjunction with Penny’s parents, Robert and Merilyn Floyd.

FLOCK IT TO THEM

THE Trompfs’ was an operation dominated by cattle until they did the sums in 2008 after a couple of dry springs.

“We worked out that 90 per cent of the dse were cattle and 10 per cent were sheep,” Jason said.

“But that 10 per cent dse was earning us 25 per cent of our income.

“It made us ask the hard questions and we reduced our cow numbers from 400 to 250, and they will go down further in the future.”

That reflects the kind of thinking the Trompfs undertake when they look at their farm business.

Their stocking rate is high and they acknowledge this.

From April until November, it is 20 dse/ha, comprising the herd of Angus cattle and crossbred and composite ewes. Each year, about 2600 ewes are lambed down, to achieve a 130 per cent lambing. But Jason, as you would expect from his consultant work with the Bred Well, Fed Well program, is not happy with this.

He and Penny are working on ways to make sure that more of the lambs scanned in the ewes actually make it to weaning stage.

“We clearly scan for singles and twins, and mob size is important when it comes to lambing down twins,” Jason said.

“It’s about having enough small paddocks so the mobs can be small enough for lambing, and lift pasture utilisation.”

Feeding the flock: Jason Trompf checks on the pasture growth.

MOB MENTALITY

SOMETIMES, the mob size is as small as 80 ewes for lambing and Jason said this was achievable whether producers had 1000 ewes or 10,000 ewes.

“Compare the cost of fencing to the cost of lost lambs, and poor pasture utilisation, and it makes sense pretty quickly,” Jason said.

“If you lift twin survival by 10 per cent, which is 20 per cent more lambs marked, it wouldn’t take long to pay off that fence.”

Jason said they had conducted the trials on their property to prove it worked and were keen to encourage others to test it for themselves.

Single-bearing ewes are lambed down at 10-12 ewes/ha. Twin-lambing ewes are stocked at a lower rate of 7-9 ewes/ha.

Ewes are in condition score 3.3 when joined for five weeks and single-lambing ewes are in condition score 2.8 when lambed down in June. Twin lambing ewes are managed through pregnancy to ensure they lamb in better condition at 3.1 condition score or more.

Preference for the best paddocks of feed is given to the twin-bearing ewes to lamb on paddocks that offer a minimum of 1500kg of dry matter a hectare of high-quality feed.

“You want enough feed in the lambing paddock so the ewe has adequate feed and will not wander off and leave her lamb, keeping her at the birth site as long as possible,” Jason said.

Birthweights of the lambs are also critical.

Jason considers an ideal weight of 4-6.5kg, and even most twin lambs come in at more than 4kg.

SUCKER PUNCH

A PORTION of the lambs is turned off as suckers straight off their mothers at 18 weeks, and always sold over the hooks.

They average 50-52kg liveweight, and target the heavy trade/light export market of 23-24kg carcass weight.

“If they have an average birthweight of 5kg, then these lambs have put on 360g/day from birth to sale and we produce about 13 lambs per hectare,” Jason said.

“It’s not a bad weight gain off pasture, but in future we need to average more than 400g/day and produce 15 lambs per hectare.

“These targets will only be achieved with highly productive pastures, proactive management of ewe condition score and high performance genetics”.

About 500 of the second-cross ewe lambs are retained and joined as ewe lambs.

“It is important for us to have a high speed to market — the lambs are born in June and at least half, preferably three-quarters will be sold over the hooks by the middle of November.”

If they are not in lamb when the main flock is lambing, they are simply sold with the rest of the wether lambs in winter, before they cut their teeth, to target premiums at that time of year.

Selecting the rams to create these kind of dual-purpose sheep — progeny that have high growth rates but also good maternal characteristics — takes careful consideration of Australian Sheep Breeding Values and a balance of traits.

WEIGHT AND SEE

THE Trompfs place emphasis on weaning weights, high muscle and fat content, but also moderate adult weight.

“We want to choose rams that will produce an early maturing lamb, which has high lamb survival and is quicker to finish,” Jason said.

“It is important for us to have a high speed to market — the lambs are born in June and at least half, preferably three-quarters will be sold over the hooks by the middle of November.”

The quick finish is vital given the availability of feed on the Trompf’s farms. Peak growing season is winter and spring, but feed reserves tail off in summer and autumn, so cows and calves are agisted through those seasons at other farms in the North East.

Jason said he would rather do this than attempt to grow summer crops which may or may not perform.

Jason and Penny continue to try new things on their farms and are as keen as ever to make it work, and to support other farmers to do the same.

“There is always something you can work on, and now we have most of the infrastructure on the farms up to scratch, it’s about making sure we do the most with the land and animals we have,” Jason said.