WINNER: THIRTEEN years of sweating it out on shearing boards enabled David Ware to expand his Western District farm - but that's where his association with Merinos ended.

David was last week announced the winner of the 2008 Weekly Times-Royal Agricultural Society prime lamb carcass competition.

It is not the first time he has been recognised as one of Australia's best lamb producers, having been runner-up in the competition in 2006.


The Hawkesdale farmer believes the lamb industry should stop worrying about what the wool industry is doing and focus on its own goals.

And the future lies in breeding composites, he said.

Like many producers, David is concerned about the ability of the industry to maintain supply in the face of a dwindling national flock.

But he believes producers need to rethink their breeding objectives and stop worrying about availability of surplus Merino ewes from the wool industry.

"If it is the other way around - looking at what is left over from the wool growers - then it's like the tail wagging the dog," David said.

But his current breeding mix of Texel, East Friesian, Coopworth and Border Leicester sheep hasn't been achieved overnight.

It has been a long road of breeding and management experimentation, and much reviewing of carcass data, provided to him from Castricum Bros' Viascan imaging system.

David and his wife Vickie have expanded their business to 2000ha, split between Hawkesdale and a cropping property at Nhill.

Each year David aims to sell 1000 lambs, heavy suckers straight off their mothers, to Castricum Bros.

The self-replacing ewe flock is based on 50 per cent East Friesian bloodlines, 15 per cent Texel and the remainder Coopworths.

But the Coopworth bloodlines are being phased out in favour of Border Leicesters, which David said had better skins and more even fat coverage.

He breeds his own rams, which are 90 per cent Texel and 10 per cent East Friesian, and has been using artificial insemination, with semen from the Mertex Texel stud.

David said his main profit driver was lambmarking percentages, which were now averaging 150 per cent. His second focus is on improving carcass characteristics.

Lambs hit the ground in the first week of August and are usually sold to Castricums by mid December.

His competition-winning consignment was processed in the first week of January last year.

David said selling about 60 per cent of lambs direct off their mothers was "easy money".

David prefers to keep costs low by selling at this point, rather than weaning and feeding on in the hope of achieving a better price.

"Getting $100 (a head) off their mums is better than $150 in July. You don't have the costs that go along with holding and feeding them through," he said.

As well as continuously improving ryegrass and sub-clover pastures, David works to ensure his maternal genetics, particularly fertility and milking ability, are spot on.

His adult ewes weigh about 75kg and usually turn off two 40kg lambs.

This year's winners weighed an average 25kg carcass weight and yielded 57.2 per cent lean meat.

The 218 lambs produced a carcass premium of $4.43, or 18c/kg.

"I get satisfaction out of hitting the nail on the head," he said.

When David gets his "invaluable" Viascan feedback from Castricums he sits down for at least half an hour, "to decipher what I need to work on".

Looking ahead, he said lamb prices of $4/kg were sustainable, but it would be hard to make a margin if they dropped to $2.50-$3/kg.

"At $5/kg, that's very good, but I wouldn't like to see it much above $5 because that is getting too expensive (for the consumer)," he said.