Lamb operation prides itself on its productivity

Efficiency is essential to the success of this 500ha sheep farm run by Darren Shurmann and his wife Kylie in the town of Hamilton in Victoria’s Western District.

Darren Schurmann runs a sheep farm at Strathkellar, where he carefully manages conditions of his ewes to turn off lambs. Photo: DANNIKA BONSER

ONE man, 5000 ewes and 7000 lambs.

This encapsulates the sophisticated prime lamb production system of Darren Schurmann designed as it is around maximum production, maximum profitability and minimal risk.

Darren and his wife, Kylie, run Kingaroy Partnership near Hamilton, in Victoria’s Western District, and thanks to the one-man nature of the operation, efficiency is essential.

It extends to everything from the most efficient sheep handling to using the best genes possible to produce the greatest amount of lamb per hectare, to intricately managing the body condition score of ewes.

And it has resulted in a change from first-cross genetics to primeline mat­ernal composites, and even the inclusion of Hampshire Downs in the past couple of years, sourced from Lambpro Genetics at Holbrook in NSW.

This year, Darren expects his flock to produce 7000 lambs from 500ha grazed. If the average weight of lambs goes as it has, that equals 14 lambs a hectare weighing an average of 54kg.

With yields of 48 per cent, it means the production system is returning 360kg of lamb carcass weight a hectare.

The Schurmanns’ switch to composites 12 years ago was a deliberate decision to ­control the risk in the business.

“We were sourcing sheep, mainly first-cross ewes, from all across Australia and you had no idea about their breeding or even their biosecurity,” Darren said. “We decided to go to composites so we could breed our own replacements, but also to maximise lamb production.”

MATERNAL LOVE

EACH year, 1500 ewes are joined to maternal composite sires to breed those replacement ewes, with the balance joined to terminal composites.

And managing those ewes and their condition score has been a game changer for the operation.

Ewe condition is boosted to 3.5 for joining and then wound back to 3.0 to 3.2 for twin-bearing ewes and 2.7 for single-bearing ewes.

Joinings are tight — mature ewes are joined for four weeks and ewe lambs are joined for five weeks — and after scanning, ewes are put into containment areas to manage condition score. It is an understanding of carefully managing condition score that sees the operation weaning 145 per cent of lambs to ewes joined.

“If your ewes are too fat, there are issues with difficult and slow births and difficult lambings,” Darren said.

“We will now lamb down a mob of ewes and might only put our hands on one out of 100.

“One year we autopsied 20 lambs that had died and found that 19 had brain damage (from slow births).

“It highlighted to us that we needed to be so careful in managing ewe condition so there could be quick births and then the lambs could be up and on their feet shortly after birth, lessening losses.”

WEIGHT FOR IT

TO manage condition score, all ewes are drafted into their feed requirements according to their pregnancy status.

    There are three levels of feeding – increasing weight, decreasing weight and maintaining weight – with the ewes fed a ration of hay and barley.

Pregnancy scanning also allows the splitting of early and late single-bearing ewes. This means that ewes having single lambs can be lambed down in two groups.

Later lambing ewes are kept in containment to prevent them from becoming too fat, lessening the chance of dystocia.

Condition scores are checked every two weeks and ewes can be changed from one feed regimen to another easily to keep condition scores at the desired level.

Pregnancy status — whether ewes are carrying singles or multiples — is maintained through a coloured dot on their backs to allow them to be easily drafted when they are paddocked out before lambing, with ewes lambed down as either singles or multiples.

Darren joins ewe lambs each year, which lamb when they are just over 12 months old. Ewe lambs are also fed in containment, but are given rations with more protein.

Careful selection of genetics, combined with higher protein feeds to boost growth, produces ewe lambs that weigh 52-53kg at nine months when they are joined.

They lamb down at 14 months and resulting lambing rates of those young breeders are about 90 per cent, with half bearing singles and half multiples.

MIX MASTER

MAINTAINING high stocking rates and turning off lambs at this weight can only be done with good feed, and for Darren, it is a mix of bought-in feed, hay and pasture.

Pastures must be maintained at the highest quality to be able to support the 25-26 dry sheep equivalents/ha the operation is sustaining.

Each paddock is soil tested every five to six years, and fertilisers applied accordingly.

Urea and gibberellic acid are also applied to maximise growth, with additional potassium applied to paddocks that have been cut for hay.

The use of containment areas post-scanning and leading up to weaning not only allows condition score to be managed, but takes grazing pressure off paddocks, manipulating an autumn break.

With a reliable rainfall of 680mm, feed can be grown in autumn as the ewes are in the containment area. It means pastures can grow rapidly and produce enough feed for stock over winter.

All of this care in lambing and pasture management leads to a crop of lambs that are turned off at 24-26kg carcass weight, either to the Coles domestic lamb program or to JBS Australia for export weights.

TASTE TEST

MORE recently, Darren has added another string to the bow of the operation, joining a portion of his ewe flock to Hampshire Down rams.

The breed, known for its high levels of intramuscular fat, has been added to the mix to try to secure a high-end export market for the Hampshire Down-composite cross.

Last year Darren bought 12 Hampshire Down rams with an average IMF of 1.6.

The results of the cross are being sold to service a specialist butcher in Melbourne, which is taking 20 lambs a week and 100 lambs for the Australia Day weekend.

Those lambs are averaging 29.6kg or about 60kg liveweight at seven months of age.

It’s a six-hour round trip to deliver the rams to Kyneton for a service kill, but Darren is unfazed by the extra work, seeing it as an investment in something that could bring bigger dividends in the future.

Darren also has a feedlot system that finishes off lambs, and said it might come into its own when grain-finishing the Hampshire Down-composite mix. He is investigating automatic feeding systems for the feedlot, which is now serviced by self-feeders that need to be filled.

“All that we do has to be easy, as there is only one labour unit for the farm,” he said.

“Having sheep handlers, covered yards, laneways, good genetics and managing those genetics properly takes the guesswork out of it and leads to efficiency.”