Smart use of best paddocks helping to improve lamb survival rates

IMPROVEMENTS in lamb survival rates are possible with better use of lambing paddocks, writes DALE WEBSTER.

Flock them: Farmhand Hamish Ellis and Tim Leeming. Photo: Dannika Bonser

TIM Leeming reckons better use of the best lambing paddocks on farms is an opportunity often overlooked as a way of improving lamb survival rates.

As a prime lamb producer from Pigeon Ponds in Victoria’s Western District, it is an issue about which he and his wife, Georgie, are passionate.

“A lot of farms — and it doesn’t matter if you are in Birchip or Balmoral — will have about a third of the farm that is really good for lambing, a third that is average and a third that is pretty ordinary,” Tim said.

“We have two extremes where we have tops of hills that are highly exposed to weather fronts and we have valleys — the valleys are the paddocks we like to lamb in.”

Tim believes it is in the detail of flock and farm management that improvements in lamb survival rates can be made.

And while there is no one “silver bullet”, he says a change to a 17-day joining cycle to allow him to use his best lambing paddocks over and over again is making an impressive difference­ to his results.

“We have been doing this for 12 months and I am really excited about it,” he said. “We will tease our ewes for two weeks with vasectomised rams and then we join them for 17 days.

“We can get about 75 per cent of our ewes joined in that time, then we have a break and go again.”

HECTARE HUNTER

THE Leemings break down their paddocks into areas of about 5ha using portable electric fencing.

They apply urea in late May before the first lambing — scheduled to run between June 18 and July 5 each year — to boost feed-on-offer levels to 1500kg of dry matter per hectare.

“We then have a 20-day gap from July 5 to 25 and use gibberellic acid to boost feed levels back to 15kg for the next twin lambing,” Tim said.

Scanning data is used to identify ewes carrying multiples and they are separated out and run in small mobs, which Tim said was another big factor in improving survival rates.

“I have about 20 years of diaries that will tell me a mob that is smaller with multiples will generally have a higher marking percentage,” Tim said.

“I’ve had lease country and all sorts of varying topography and pastures, but generally speaking, the smaller we have our mobs with multiple-bearing ewes the better the result we have.”

The Leemings’ self-replacing maternal flock is running at 18,500 dry sheep equivalent.

The maternal base is Coopworth and all ewes are joined to a maternal composite ram.

“It’s just like a self-replacing Merino flock but instead, a self-replacing prime lamb flock,” Tim said.

YOUNG GUNS

TO allow for flexibility, Tim likes to keep the flock young, with 28 per cent ewe lambs and 65 per cent of the flock aged between 1½ and 4½ years old.

This year, 39 per cent of their ewe flock was under two-years-old when joined.

“We had 2.1 per cent dry ewes over the adult flock, including 1800 1½-year-olds, and 3.1 per cent dry with ewe lambs included,” Tim said.

“Ewe lambs born late June-July are joined to lamb the following August, so ewe lambs start lambing at 13 months of age. This year our commercial ewe lambs scanned at 152 per cent to ewe lambs joined, which was pleasing.”

To assist in production de­cisions, everything is measured and rams have to show their worth both on the books and in the paddock.

“We push our rams hard and they have been running at 20 to 25 DSE/ha,” Tim said.

“We feed them really well until the break and then we get them to emulate what they are going to breed for us.

“There are no self-feeders, no hay bales or going into cosy sheds during winter.

“There is the odd one who doesn’t handle it, but they are the ones we don’t want to sell to anyone.”

NUTRITION PLANE

ALONG with breeding values, feed requirements for the flock are also measured, ensuring nutritional needs are met.

Cereals are grown in more exposed country to hedge supplementary feed costs, clean up annual weeds in pastures and improve winter grazing for ewes and lambs in July and August.

“We can’t afford not to graze crops in our area,” Tim said.

“In a year like this when it’s wet, our best drained ground will grow us the most grass, so if we are going to put a crop on it, we have to at least eat part of it.”

The estimated drop from this year’s lambing, which is still going, will exceed 8000 and by 2018 the Leemings hope to be weaning between 10,000 and 11,000 lambs.

“We’ve set targets and we aim to get there,” Tim said.

“We have control over pretty much everything we do with sheep, bar the weather.

“If we can dial up the right amount of feed, provide the best shelter that we can, improve genetics, have the right condition on the ewes and have them in the right mob size, then we have given the lambs the best chance to survive.

“If we don’t meet these targets then we will compromise survival to varying degrees.

“Providing shelter will push to the top of the list every time — you are far better to compromise lamb growth rates and have live lambs.”

PIGEON PAIR

THE Pigeon Ponds region has experienced its wettest winter in more than 20 years this year, with Tim describing the weather conditions during lambing season as “an absolute caning”.

Despite this they have recorded 86 per cent twin survival in their first lambing and 83 per cent in their second.

“Overall, our survival for the two main lambings, which includes single-bearing ewes, has been 87 per cent,” Tim said.

“Considering the winter we have had and the stocking rates we are running, we are very happy with that.

“Lamb survival is the one thing we can all work on at very little cost. We need to improve as an industry and there is evidence out there that suggests that if you can improve lamb survival by 10 per cent you are nearly twice as better off than improving scanning percentages by 10 per cent.

“It’s just about being pro­active.”