TOP-notch equipment enables a Riverina stud to shear, weigh and process 6000 lambs with only four staff.
Sheep and operator comfort are high on the list at Riverina Merino stud Pooginook when it comes to recording performance.
The stud boasts an impressive set of yards capable of holding 6000 sheep and leading in to an eight-stand shearing shed.
Shearing, drafting, classing, data collection and processing - once separate jobs - can now be done at the same time.
Pooginook business manager John Sutherland said the yards had increased labour efficiency and were unrestrictive when it came to sheep throughput.
He said the use of electronic scanning and data collection had removed the human error in tag reading by up to 15 per cent.
Mr Sutherland said 6000 lambs could now be shorn, weighed and processed with four staff.
"In the past we had a workable set of conventional yards that had reached the end of their life," Mr Sutherland said. "We wanted a modern drafting and working race area in addition to a modern classing and data collection area for handling rams and stud sheep."
The bugle design features a rotary force with a curved adjustable race leading to the sheep handler, scanning crate and classing box.
The adjustable vee drafting race allows the handling of various-sized sheep.
Freshly shorn sheep, weaners or horned rams can be prevented from turning around by the narrowing vee.
Built on a raised concrete platform, the force and the race are curved and sheeted to promote stock flow and reduce the amount of handling required, especially for large numbers of rams.
"The classing and processing area has an automatic, air-operated auto-drafter," Mr Sutherland said.
The fully lit and powered work area is recessed for the set-up of a computer monitor, laptop and the electronic Tru Test XR3000 data recorder.
"We can pre-determine the draft. For example, at weaning time we draft all single-mated sheep in the manual draft and then run the 700 single-mated ram weaners around into the data collection area," Mr Sutherland said.
"We can then upload the XR3000 to automatically draft into sire groups."
The operator presses a button to let the ram in to the classing box, a panel reader scans the electronic ear tag and the XR-3000 sorts through the sire groups and automatically opens the gate. "It's a one-man operation and quite fast - we are processing 500 rams an hour. Manually this would have taken a whole day."
Mr Sutherland said the yards made the job of visually inspecting the weaner progeny of each stud sire quick and efficient.
"This is one of the key activities to reviewing how mating went the previous year," he said.
The Pro-Way yards at Pooginook were built over 15 days in 2008 and feature a sprinkler system and two covered work areas.
"The capacity of the yards are now infinite as we can keep feeding sheep in and out while carrying out four distinct jobs," Mr Sutherland said.
"There will be times in the spring when we are drafting, shearing, classing and processing at the same time.
"Our general classing has now been reduced from seven to four days."
Under the conventional model, the sheep would be branded and drafted up at the end of each day.
"Now they can be drafted five ways at the time of the decision."
Mr Sutherland said sprinklers were placed around the yards for dust control and operator comfort.
"The main benefit is dust is not filling the wool, or our own and dogs' lungs," he said.
While conceding the yards were a top-end model, Mr Sutherland said the design and construction had proven to be cost-effective.
Pooginook staff were given a set of generic designs with the final design customised to suit.
About 10 per cent of the old yards remain.
The high tensile sheep rail panels throughout the yard have an oval profile.
The profile presents a flat vertical surface with no sharp edges - panels have six rails and are 1050mm high.
They have a gap between the top two rails to minimise the chance of dogs or sheep breaking legs.
A 12.6m long double drafting race has tumble swing gates and a three-way draft at the end.
Tumble swing gates pivot from the centre of the post towards the operator and swing around flush against the fence.
A feature of the handling races are the guillotine gates, which minimise walking.
They are operated from anywhere along the race by pulling on a cable which has a counterweight attached.
Mr Sutherland said site preparation was crucial to ensure sheep yards were well drained.
He included a diamond yard in the design to promote the fast flow of sheep from the count-out pens in to working races for processing.
"The diamond yard allows for the multiple escape of sheep that have been drafted or sheep requiring re-drafting," he said.
"It is also a good corner for catching mistakes and putting the sheep back in the pen it belongs in."
Mr Sutherland was so impressed with the new yards, a second set was added to an existing set on adjoining property Stud Park North last year.
"Working in sheep yards used to be dusty, dirty and stressful," Mr Sutherland said. "If we can't have a low-stress working environment for staff and sheep, the experience is not enjoyable and often not cost effective, or simply not done."
