AN OPEN ear to expert advice has paid off handsomely for central Victorian wool and lamb producer David Johnson.
David works 2226ha of freehold and leased land at Hunter, west of Elmore, running about 1600 ewes in a self-replacing Merino flock, a small cattle herd and a busy cropping program.
He sowed more than 1200ha this year to hay, forage crops, canola, wheat, barley and oats.
He is helped by his wife, Claire, father Max and four children - Kate, 17, Sarah, 14, Rachel, 11, and Peter, 8.
The family also works closely with a nutritionist from CopRice in Tongala, Shyamal Das, and Department of Primary Industry's Bendigo vet Rachael Holmes.
They are part of DPI's Sentinel flock project and have been involved in its ewe and lamb mortality program and the Sheep Co-operative Research Centre's Lifetime Ewe Management project.
David and Max join 700-800 ewe weaners to Border Leicesters twice a year for the first cross and feed lupins to both rams and ewes for extra fertility, six weeks prior to joining.
"It's only lupins that will do this - no other grain has that effect," David said.
"You tend to get more multiples, but the idea is lambs on the ground and, hopefully, lambs alive."
Rachael offers regular ideas and advice and conducts post-mortems on dead lambs - often on the spot.
"She has also encouraged us to scan for multiples, then put those ewes into smaller mobs to reduce mismothering," David said.
"Shyamal turns up every now and then and walks through asking whether we have any animal health and nutrition issues.
"He's amazing - what he doesn't know isn't worth knowing. In the past, we hadn't tended to do a worm test, but, having been involved with the mortality trial, we now plan a worm test at the start of summer on some of our weaners before drenching to check the worm burden.
"Then we'll do another test later to see whether we need a second summer drench. The key is being armed with the knowledge and not drenching out of habit.
"Farmers are very good at doing things because that's how they've always done it. Dad did it, so it must be right.
"It's understandable - you learn on the job and you tend to do as others have done.
"With vaccinations, we normally go for five-in-one, but have gone for six-in-one now.
"Before, we've only done the lambs at marking and then a booster, but we've learned from Rachael we need to do a pre-lambing vaccination on the ewes. We give one vaccination at lamb marking, plus a booster at weaning or mulesing. For the ewes, it's annual."
David said the biggest animal health issues had been lice, worms and flies.
"They reckon 80 per cent of the national sheep flock is lice-infested and I'd say that wouldn't be far wrong," he said.
"And the flies are a problem because you can't use Diazinon any more. Last autumn, the flies were just cruel, but everyone had that problem."
Another animal health measure the Johnsons have used for the past eight years is the bioclipping of their lambs to reduce the stress of shearing.
"We haven't shorn a Merino lamb here for eight years," David said. "You can't appreciate how much stress shearing causes until you see how well they do without it."
