Focusing on profit, not production the key at Kaniva
ABRUPTLY changing weather and rainfall patterns have motivated Kaniva’s Steven Hobbs to radically overhaul his enterprises and farming approach.
ABRUPTLY changing weather and rainfall patterns have motivated Kaniva’s Steven Hobbs to radically overhaul his enterprises and farming approach.
Climate change had changed the risk profile of farming, he says, and farmers could not pass on risks so needed to adapt.
In the midst of rapidly declining rainfall on his farm, the fourth generation farmer has increased his self-replacing Merino flock and produces more prime lambs and a smaller portion of crops. He also uses cover cropping to boost soil health.
With the “next big revolution in agriculture being data management” Steven has recently employed sheep EID technology to record individual animal performance, and, along with breeding values, is honing the livestock enterprise to retain and breed from only the most profitable ewes.
His interest in regenerative agriculture also led him to sign up to be paid for carbon sequestered in his soil.
Regenerative agriculture was “about getting the landscape and ecoservices back to functioning as it should be”.
Agriculture’s pursuit of productivity had hampered these natural functions on many farms, he said.
RAIN, RAIN, GOING AWAY
Steven said his farm’s historic weather and rainfall information showed it was experiencing the driest recorded rainfall period in the last 130 years. In modern times, droughts were also more frequent.
“Other observations that I am recording are in line with the trends and analysis being reported by the BOM,” he said.
Stopping to really look into his data prompted Steven’s decision to change his management.
His weather records, from 2000 to January this year, comparing to the long-term average rainfall from 1883, clearly show what he is talking about isn’t gut feel.
In that time, rainfall has dropped by a fifth, or 89mm, from 423mm to 334mm.
Crucially, growing season rainfall has shortened and been hit by a similar decline; down 21 per cent, from 310mm to 245mm.
And it is not just a change in the quantum of water that this farmer now has to work with, but the variation.
“(Now in) March, April, May, June, September and October, there is only a 40 per cent chance of receiving average monthly rainfall,” he said.
Since 2014, Steve has also noted an extension in the frost-risk season, from 90 days to 140 days, and days with temperatures above 32 degrees are now stretching into April and October — previously uncommon.
“When I look at rainfall records, Dad had a golden time when he was farming, he had a lot of wet years and only one drought year in every 10; whereas I’ve had one wet year in 10 and a drought every three years,” he said.
Once he had analysed the reality of the situation, he was able to come up with a new direction to reduce risk.
“Farming traditionally has given reward for effort; a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay,” he said.
“But now with the variations in weather, a single event such as a hot snap or late frost can have a devastating financial impact.
“People associate their sense of worth with their work; so it can then have a mental affect too, farmers are trying their hardest, the best they know how, yet they’re not getting the reward.
“Some people say, don’t worry, its just a cycle, it’ll be wet next year, but we’ve been hearing that for 15 years.”
MIXING IT UP
“Once I’d worked out what the trends were, I worked out Dad’s mix of 30 per cent crop and 70 per cent sheep was right,” he said, and he started to move his enterprise away from cropping and towards sheep.
“When I was growing up it was all about maximising production, which can lead to overspending — a lot of people have gone broke doing that.
“What we need to look at is profitability.”
Steven defines this as what each farmer saw as a rewarding, meaningful life, and the business’ ability to help provide that.
BIOFUEL HORIZONS
Steven previously grew biofuel crops and processing, motivated by the changing seasonal conditions.
After a Nuffield scholarship on biofuels in the early 2000s, he set up Wimmera Biodiesel.
But, the business battled investment uncertainty and unclear government policy.
He still believes in biofuels and a decentralised fuel sector.
“If we’re going to address some of the climate change issues, brought on by burning crude oil, we have to either stop pulling carbon out of the ground and burning it, or we look at efficiencies, or we cycle the carbon that is in the atmosphere — that’s what biofuels do.”
He doesn’t attribute the time spent on biofuels as wasted, saying he learnt a lot, much of which applies today.
One area was biodegradable hydro-gels polyacrylamides, used in the biofuel sector, which can also be applied to soils to help retain water.
Polyacrylamides have been applied to half the Hobbs farm, on lighter soils, at $4/ha.
Similarly a drought-tolerant biofuel crop, camellia, a high omega-three oilseed, is now used for grazing ewes. Steven has found the omega-threes influence gender of offspring, producing more males.
Now, he is also in an Emissions Reductions Funds project to sequester soil carbon.
Baseline carbon is recorded and the farmer is paid for how much extra carbon is stored after a decade.
Steven is using 13-plus cover crop species to boost soil carbon, as well as rotational grazing. He has also been able to capitalise on variable stocking rates, running more livestock when feed was available but just the core flock in drier months.
“I’m selecting for, and running more profitable sheep,” he said.
Because the GSR has shortened, April-born lambs need to grow fast to hit target weights before pastures decline in November.
The core ewe flock is self-replacing Merinos with the rest mated to White Suffolks for prime lamb production.
DIGITAL EWE
In an attempt to lift the profitability of the sheep enterprise Steven now records individual animal performance data with EID tags.
All wool is weighted and ewes scanned into twinning and single mobs.
Dry ewes are mated to White Suffolks, if they fail to get into lamb for two consecutive years they are sent to market.
“We track the income generated per sheep,” he said.
“I replace the bottom performing 10 per cent of ewes and replace them with lambs bred with better selection criteria, using ASBVS to target fat and growth.”
Across the mobs, Steven is now getting an average lambing percentage of 112.
“There is room to improve lamb survival with better grazing mixes, increased shelter and dedicated electrified lambing paddocks.
“My most profitable ewes were Merinos with multiple lambs, they cut $77 of wool and with the lamb, returned $247 on average; in this the top ewes made $282 and bottom was $216.
“If I’m going to choose 1000 ewes to run on my farm, they’re the ones I focus my breeding on, that is why I use EID.”
In a drought, he can now select poor performing ewes to sell, ensuring the flock’s best genetics are retained.
Setting up the EID, with the auto-drafted has also reduced stress on stock and humans and cut down on labour needed. He also uses weights and scanning data to quantify fertility. The data has shown determined optimal fertility is achieved at 65-70kg joining weights.
“The money you don’t spend on the farm is the easiest money to make,” he said.
“Getting rid of the least profitable sheep is one way to do that.
“We’re on the cusp of a revolution in stock handling, due to individual EID.”
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