Why feedback sheets have been a game changer for Ridgehaven

In the Central West of NSW, lamb producer Isabele Roberts has an ace up her sleeve she uses to improve the breeding strategies at her Poll Dorset stud.

It’s no accident that when Isabele Roberts sends a load of lambs to the abattoir, they more than hit the grid targets.

For Isabele, who’s a key decision maker in the genetics development for her family’s Ridgehaven Poll Dorset stud at Cudal, NSW, and livestock manager for the commercial prime lamb flock, those kill sheets provide critical feedback.

She will pore over them carefully, knowing the information she gets back on the lambs will feed in to the breeding strategies for the stud and have the capacity to influence up to 100,000 prime lambs, including their own.

A recent load of lambs sent to Gundagai Meat Processors was a case in point.

Of the 231 lambs (five to six months old) sent to GMP, 201 hit the weight specifications perfectly and 44 per cent of the run hit the quality bonus for lean meat yield and intramuscular fat, earning an extra 80c/kg carcass weight price.

It’s these kinds of results that give vital indicators about the genetics from the stud arm of the operation. The outcome of these genetics is tracked via the commercial prime lamb performance, and then used to help fine tune the family’s genetic business.

Isabele Roberts, from Cudal, NSW runs the Ridgehaven Poll Dorset stud. Pictures: Supplied

BIG WORKLOAD

Isabele is a critical cog in the family’s mixed farming business, which produces elite genetics, runs a research flock for the Poll Dorset breed, produces thousands of commercial prime lambs and a large area of cropping across three properties totalling 3050ha at Cudal and Forbes.

Isabele is unashamedly a Poll Dorset breeder first and foremost. The stud has been going for almost six decades and she, together with her sister Ruth and brother Floyd, are the second generation to be at its helm.

Ridgehaven runs 920 stud Poll Dorset ewes, from which about 400 rams are sold each year.

And Isabele takes the responsibility of breeding commercially relevant rams seriously.

“There is real value in being both a lamb producer and stud breeder,” Isabele said.

“You see and feel the value of the ram genetics in commercial lamb system, and it highlights which traits are most important for on farm efficiencies and overall profitability.

“We aim to have the shortest amount of time from lambing to sale – to have high on farm production efficiency minimises days to market weight.”

There is some debate, Isabele said, about level of influence of genetics versus management in producing prime lambs.

But she said while nutrition and management are clearly most critical, it was not possible to produce top quality lambs unless the genetics provided the building blocks to do this.

And those building blocks of the Ridgehaven Poll Dorset genetics are tested by the commercial operation in a neat synergy for the operation.

Ridgehaven runs 920 stud Poll Dorset ewes, from which about 400 rams are sold each year.

Each year, Isabele and her family join about 3200 commercial ewes to their own Ridgehaven Poll Dorset rams, producing about 5000 lambs.

They don’t leave anything to chance in the lamb production system, even producing a portion of their own prime lamb dams.

Instead of opting for a more traditional first-cross ewe, Merino ewes are joined to Poll Dorset rams.

The wether portion is taken to carcass weights of 26kg and higher, and the ewe portion is retained as dams for the prime lamb operation.

Those Poll Dorset-Merino ewes are then joined with high growth rate Poll Dorset rams, to produce the bulk of the commercial prime lamb drop which is three-quarter Poll Dorset and one-quarter Merino.

GOOD BALANCE

While not a traditional cross, Isabele said the mothering ability and temperament of the Poll Dorset-Merino ewe had impressed, as had the lambing percentages.

Maiden Poll Dorset-Merino ewes this year produced a weaning percentage of 125 per cent, while the mature ewes recorded 155 per cent lambs to ewes joined.

“The F2 (second cross) lambs mature quicker and we are able to control the genetics of the dam as well as the sire of the lambs,” Isabele said.

“The Poll Dorset-Merino ewes have a calm, protective temperament with the baby lambs and milk well, and it is a cross that is efficient in both stocking rate and days to market weight.”

The biggest percentage of lambs are sold as suckers, with a target carcass weight of 23 to 24 kilograms. These are fed into Cowra, NSW abattoir Breakout River Meats, and are marketed at about 14-18 weeks.

A portion of lambs which are later maturing is shorn, and it’s those that are taken to heavier carcass weights of 26-27kg and sold to GMP.

It allows a staggered turn-off of lambs, but it also capitalises on the work Isabele has done to build in marbling (intramuscular fat) into the breeding program.

Marbling in lambs tends to express itself as the animal matures, and the older lambs which make their way to GMP can then be rewarded for the IMF built into the genetics.

Knowing a processor’s requirements, and trying to maximise the number that hit the grid, is never left to chance.

All lambs are weighed and fat scored before they are selected and transported. From experience, Isabele can make a strong ‘guesstimate’ on the yield of lambs, and will select lambs 44-50kg liveweight to Breakout River, and 52-60kg when consigning to GMP.

“We look to target the middle of the grid, which we find is the most profitable for us,” she said.

“We also tend to try to send in at a condition score of 3-3.5, and know they will dress at least 50 per cent of their empty weight.”

Isabele Roberts uses feedback from abattoirs to feed into the genetics operation.

A strong relationship with processors has been integral to setting the targets of the breeding program at Ridgehaven, Isabele said, and has allowed the stud flock to be fine-tuned to meet market specifications.

She saw an early draft of a GMP grid in 2020 that rewarded marbling, and quickly saw it was something that could be a win-win for both the processor and for her genetics.

“Even at that point it was very apparent that Gundagai Lamb was going to create a shift in the producer/processor relationship by providing usable feedback about the quality of the lamb that has been consigned,” she said.

“As a genetics producer it can be very difficult to align the time, money and effort put into developing high value eating quality traits when (at that time) there was no avenue for the lamb producer to be rewarded.”

Step forward three years, and Isabele not only supplies a portion of her lambs to GMP and gains the feedback but she has also this year been awarded the processor’s pioneers award, recognising her contribution to establishing a valuable feedback system.

But she was even more excited when one of her clients won another GMP award for the quality of lambs they supplied.

Back to that recent load of lambs, that were five months old when they went to the processor. They were grass-fed, weaned, shorn and then were put in a paddock of dryland pasture mix of Phalaris and Lucerne, with access to a low level of oats in a feeder.

At an average liveweight of 54.2kg, and a range in weights of 51-61kg, their financial performance was maximised thanks to careful breeding.

“Those lambs hit the specifications, almost half earned an 80c/kg bonus and all from very little input other than high quality genetics and focused management,” Isabele said.

“We love that we can get this feedback, both positive and negative, on the performance of our genetics and use it to keep improving what we can offer.

“It’s always exciting to see what we can do to keep producing genetics that the industry needs.”