PREMIUM prices have prompted Stephen Poole to grow early feed and have two breeds of lambs, writes KIM WOODS

Meeting the winter lamb markets can be tricky but the price premiums are there if you get the system right.

For Wedderburn farmer Stephen Poole the aim is to grow early feed, beat the early suckers and capture the premiums on offer.

He sells Merino wether lambs at export weights with maximum wool and skin values in winter and first-cross lambs in February and March.

"The system sounds complicated but it is all about taking advantage of the different maturing rates of the lambs and matching the stocking rate to available feed," Stephen said.

"This season we sold $120,000 worth of lambs in meat alone, yet 15 years ago we weren't producing lambs at all."

Stephen and his wife, Lisa, farm 850ha in a 450mm rainfall zone at Berrimal, in northern Victoria.

Their enterprise includes a 1500 head Merino ewe flock with 60:40 split joining back to Merino and White Suffolk rams.

They also grow 200ha of wheat, oats, barley and lupins and have 400ha of lucerne-based pastures, which includes 100ha of lucerne oversown to cereals.

Stephen uses lucerne, and other lucerne paddocks direct drilled to cereals, for bulk winter feed as a base to match the different lamb maturing patterns of the lambs.

"Using cereal oversowing has allowed us to double our winter feed production, which in conjunction with the feed grain we produce, allows us to achieve export weights with Merino wether lambs in winter at 11 months of age," Stephen said.

Each year, once stubbles have been exhausted, usually by February, the ewes are moved into stock-containment areas where feeding is increased up to joining from March 1.

They are then slowly introduced to green feed after the autumn break.

Meanwhile the previous season's spring-drop lambs graze lucerne after having the best of the stubbles, with preference given to the first-cross lambs.

They then have access to ad-lib oats and lupins from mid-January and are turned off at export weights in February and March.

Up until this stage, Merino lambs are still immature and slow growing.

"Once the first-cross lambs have gone, the lamb stocking rate is effectively halved and the system can cope, as dry feed carryover is depleted and lucerne growth begins to slow," Stephen said.

"We can then take more of the lucerne paddocks out of the rotation for over-sowing to finish the Merino wether lambs and later to feed the lambing ewes."

The Merino wether lambs were this year finished in mid-July to meet a forward contract taken out in mid-April.

Last year's drop of first-cross lambs achieved an average carcass weight of 22.8kg with a lean meat yield of 56.2 per cent, resulting in a premium of 15c/kg or $3.52 per carcass.

The result gave the Pooles fifth place in the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria's prime lamb carcass competition.

"This was a real surprise for a first-cross lamb out of a Merino ewe," Stephen said.

"This year's lambs achieved an average return of $130 a head selling at 475c/kg with $14 for the skins."

With a dry April-May, the Merino wether lambs were this year fed a ration of oats and 20 per cent barley from just before a May 19 shearing until their kill date on July 22.

At their first shearing at nine months of age, the wethers cut 3.85kg of 17.9-micron wool, with an average length of 87mm, valued at $25.20.

The wethers were sold over the hooks at 475c/kg with an average liveweight of 55.85kg and a carcass weight of 24.2kg, for a return of $123.

Including the wool return and an 18mm pelt, the total was $148.20 a lamb.
The main shearing is in late June with returns last year, including crutchings, being $37.50 a ewe and $25.30 for hoggets.

Ewes are pregnancy scanned and sorted into single and multiple bearers.

Lambing percentages range between 90 and 100 per cent.

This year, ewes joined to White Suffolk rams scanned at 131 per cent including maidens.

At the start of lambing (from August 1), all ewes except those identified as second cycle single-bearers (18 per cent) are moved on to high bulk, high-nutrition paddocks, usually cereal oversown lucerne.

The single bearers are run on good average feed before lambing to reduce lambing difficulties.

Stephen and Lisa use prime rams from One Oak Merino stud at Jerilderie in NSW.

Bred as a dual-purpose Merino, the sheep are early maturing and well muscled and capable of reaching export weights with little loss in wool cut and quality.

White Suffolk rams are selected from Detpa Grove stud with the aid of Lambplan figures, concentrating on high post-weaning weights and low birthweights.

"Using a 60:40 split joining Merino to White Suffolk, the ewe flock can be sustained while the two breeds of lambs maturing at different times of the year match the available feed," Stephen said.

"Maximum advantage can be gained from the lucerne pastures over the summer-autumn when production is highest."

The key is the grain feeding in 6m portable feeders that Stephen made. They are easy to move, full or empty, and two of them have the capacity to feed 600 lambs. The energy and fibre in the grain (mainly oats) balances the high protein of the lucerne and cereal pastures.

The cropping program is structured around grain prices and recently has focused on feed grain, improving pastures and growing winter feed.

Speaking at the recent Grasslands Society of Southern Australia conference, Stephen said dual-purpose wheat, barley and oat varieties were a welcome addition.

"We are experimenting with a new forage barley, ranger, which has a gene for exceptional early growth and we are hoping it will be ideal for finishing Merino wether lambs in early winter," he said.

"The challenge is to grow the early feed, beat the early suckers and have all lambs off the place well before the start of lambing on August 1."

The Pooles are also growing dual-purpose mannus oats for grazing and grain as well as the older variety possum.

"The possum provides good-quality bulk in early winter while the mannus is ideal for lambing and can be grazed for an extra month over possum before growth stage 31," Stephen said.

The Pooles grow barley over lucerne, grazing it to growth stage 31, or before the head emerges to grazing height.

"We can then assess whether or not to go on with the crop as a grain option, cut for hay or continue grazing," Stephen said.