STUART and Janet Morant are the only prime lamb producers left in the picturesque Tallangatta Valley.

The couple, along with superfine Merino breeders the Fraser family, are the last sheep producers holding out against wild dogs.

    AT A GLANCE
  • Who: Stuart and Janet Morant
  • What: Prime lambs and beef.
  • Why: It's a dog fight
  • Where: Tallangatta
  • Report: KIM WOODS

The balance of the farming families in the valley, east of Wodonga, run dairy or beef cattle.

Stuart was a pioneer of using electric fencing to control wild dog attacks on sheep back in 1980.

With his farm adjoining state forest, Stuart spent years trialling feral fencing.

"The four-wire original fence is still effective today. It uses ironbark posts, two live wires and two earth returns," he said.

"It is situated just inside the existing back fence.

"In summer, the dogs' leathery pads mean they don't get a kick off the fence if there is no earth return.

"We can't survive without it."

It took Stuart two years to build the fence, which encircled two 202ha blocks.

"An electric fence is only as good as the person checking the voltage on a daily basis," he said. "I spend a few hours a week checking the fence and that needs to be factored into labour costs."

Even so, wild dog attacks increased last year, with the couple losing stud lambs.

Guard alpacas were introduced and they have proved effective against foxes but the Morants aren't so sure about wild dogs.

This year, the couple came through lambing without losing a single lamb to wild dogs.

Janet, a passionate sheep breeder, runs her enterprise separately from Stuart's beef herd.

Her Belvedere Poll Dorset stud comprises 250 registered ewes and 200 flock ewes.

"I cull heavily and sell 70 flock rams a year, mainly in the area northwest of Albury," Janet said.

She sells lambs direct over the hooks, at 24-28kg dressed weight.

Stuart runs 200 Angus-Friesian cross autumn and spring calving cows joined to Limousin bulls.

Progeny are sold direct to processors at 350kg liveweight.

Although the enterprises are kept separate, Stuart and Janet work as a team.

They rotationally graze the stock through their pasture- based system.

Today, they are reaping the benefits of the thousands of trees thay have planted since 1980 along fence lines as windbreaks and shade for stock.

Janet said her philosophies were evolving and she was keen to trial biological products to improve the soils.

"My focus is getting the pasture improved to carry more stock and how I use fertiliser to do that," Stuart said. "I have an open mind about it."

The Morants are hosting an Evergraze trial site on their property.

The trial aims to use improved grazing management on native and improved pastures on sloping country while increasing the perennial component.

A deferred grazing regime is used on the upper slopes, which grow spear and wallaby grass, ryegrass and barley grass.

The lower slopes have been resown to winter-active tall fescue, cocksfoot, sub clover and white clover.

This paddock has been continuously grazed by 200-250 lambs, giving 5480 dry sheep equivalent grazing days a hectare, at an average stocking rate of 17 DSE/ha, from August to November.

Cocksfoot now dominates the perennial component, at 48 per cent, compared with 6 per cent for tall fescue.

The legume content declined from 18 per cent in August last year to 4 per cent now.

The set-stocked native pasture paddock was grazed until September 30, giving 2280 DSE grazing days/ha at an average stocking rate of seven DSE/ha.

A third treatment, a rotationally grazed native pasture, which has been destocked since September, gave 700 DSE grazing days/ha at an average stocking rate of 2.2 DSE/ha.

"The concept of this trial is wonderful for getting information out to the farming community," Stuart said.

"No one had used a winter- active fescue here and we wanted to see the difference it would make.

"I didn't want to use phalaris in the trial because of its toxicity to sheep.

"I have since learnt this country might be more suited to cocksfoot because the soils are light and acidic."

The Morants' farm ranges from creek flats to steeper hills and consists mainly of clay- loam soils.

They are experiencing one of the best springs of the decade and were able to store two seasons' worth of silage and hay.

"Historically, this is a fairly safe valley but the drought has been an experience for all of us," Stuart said.

"I have lived here all my life and this drought has been the worst.

"We moved away from set stocking to rotationally grazing and water was an enormous issue for us.

"Our higher country ran out of water so we put in pumps and a reticulated system to troughs."

Stuart said the run of dry seasons had worn down farmers, with decision-making becoming difficult.

He said keeping communication open had been a key to survival.

"We are all feeling more optimistic now with such a good spring," Stuart said.