The once over

01-10-2008 | Lynda Gray

Grass grows grass is the simple formula underpinning Pip Wilkie's once over wintering (OOW) rotation.

It's an often overlooked approach that the young Middlemarch teacher-turned- farmer has used, with help from farm consultant
Pete Young, with promising first season results.

Pip was thrown into the thick of full-on farming in spring 2006 following the separation of her parents and departure of her father who had managed Gladbrook Station since 1980. The station is a 491ha rock and pillar range foothills and flats property 8km from Middlemarch.

"I always wanted to farm. I had the passion and knew the basics but not a lot about the day-to-day and year round management," says Pip.

Realising she needed guidance on how to successfully winter Gladbrook's 2000 ewes and 600 hoggets, Pip approached Central Otago farm consultant Pete Young.

Their farm management partnership commenced with an intense two day overview and audit of the property and stock, along with discussion on Pip's own goals and aspirations.

Pete's suggestion on how to best manage and feed stock over the winter was to invest in several reels of electric tape and standards, and follow a OOW rotation.

"I listened very carefully to what he said because I didn't know how I was going to get through the winter...he said the benefits of the system would be obvious to me in spring."

Implementation of the 2007 OOW rotation started with an assessment of available pasture and crops on hand.

About 30ha of kale and turnips were in the ground, but much of the property's permanent pastures were run out. A winter feed deficit was identified and plugged with purchase of 100 bales of lucerne hay.

A winter grazing platform of 240ha was used, with 50ha excluded and saved for early lambing ewes.

A rotation plan was then drawn up to commence on May 15 and conclude on August 21, after which the ewes would be fed on remaining crops until set-stocking five days before lambing. The rotation was tailored so that sheep ended up in sheltered paddocks handy for shearing in mid-June.

The Gladbrook ewes were separated into two wintering mobs of 800 two-tooths and lighter-weight ewes, and 1200 mixed-age ewes.

The rotation kicked off with both mobs grazing those paddocks with the least feed.

Each paddock was divided in half and the mob break fed on each half for five days.

The first day was all grass grazing, with hay, or baleage and barley fed out from day two onwards.

The 800 two-tooths were supplemented with one bale of lucerne hay (15 small bale equivalents) and 200kg of barley; and on the remaining days one-and-a-half bales of lucerne hay and 200kg of barley. The mixed-age flock received on day two until day five two bales of lucerne hay and 300kg barley.

The frequent shifting of hot wires made for an intense first winter.

"Pete warned me I'd spend a lot of time shifting electric fences and by the end of winter I was certainly looking forward to set-stocking for lambing."

But the payback, as predicted, became apparent in spring.

"When I went to set-stock the ewes for lambing I had the grass for them and they never ate it down."

This year's OOW rotation of 280ha, due to an extra 40ha of young grass, started on May 13 and concluded on July 20.

"Pete had worked out we'd have crop left, so for the last month the sheep were grazed on crops and a grass run-off and that left the other paddocks time to grow grass for lambing."

With extra land available Pip reduced the time sheep spent on each half-paddock from five to three days. She also excluded from the rotation 50ha and, as further feed insurance for the early lambing ewes, another 30ha of young grass.

"It looks like I won't need it but it's good to have something up your sleeve."

Sheep were grazed in two 700 two-tooth and 1400 mixed-age mobs and were supplemented with barley and 200t of oat silage (from a 16ha summer grown crop), instead of bought in lucerne hay.

"My aim is to be self sufficient and grow my own supplements."

The intense winter management approach has driven home to Pip the fundamentals of successful sheep management.

"It's taught me lots about the management of ewes and the importance of having feeding in front of them to maintain and increase condition."

The first dollar and cents payback of Pip Wilkie's OOW rotation was reflected in the cheque for the 2007 pre-Xmas lamb delivery - almost $15,000 more than the previous year's.

In 2006 147 lambs were sent away prior to Christmas at an average price of $68.16.

In 2007 the first draft of 283 lambs (average price of $59.97) were sent away on December 8, and a second draft of 179 on December 17 (average price $53.03).

Although hard to quantify, with second season returns and results not yet available, Pip says the winter management ensures feed is always ahead of stock and is allowing her a greater degree of flexibility with stock management and trading.

This winter for example, she realized in mid-June that she had extra crop on hand so took on 256 dairy grazers from August 10 until the end of September.

She has an open mind on whether to sell lambs as stores or finish them. Summer conditions and growth are the guiding parameters and the final decision on stores versus prime lamb finishing is made at weaning in the second week of January.

In 2006-07 1000 were sold as stores at weaning and the rest finished.

This season 700 were sold and the remainder finished on 20ha of rape. She also took on 270 PGG Lambsure lambs in February for second grazing of the rape crop and sold them in May making $29 a head.

Yearling cattle are also bought in Autumn and grazed. This year 27 cattle were bought and 10 sent away on the 10 June. The rest were put on pasture and crop clean-up duties and sent away in September.

Now comfortable in her farming role Pip wants to further push production by refining sheep management, and concentrating on pasture development and sheep genetics.

Sheep management is being fine-tuned where necessary to complement Gladbrook's seasonal growth pattern, which although changeable generally features good spring growth. To capitalize on this growth period Pip has moved forward lambing from late to mid-September.

She's also made the decision to forgo hogget lambing.

"I think it's too hard on hoggets and I reckon I'll get a longer producing ewe. Next year I'll be able to tell if it's made a difference."

Pip's also keen to push the lambing potential of Gladbrook ewes and her goal is
to achieve and maintain lambing around 170%.

"I don't see the point in lambing 190% and ending up with lots of smaller triplets; I'd rather have decent sized twins."

She was very disappointed in 2007 scanning results and the across-the-board lambing of 126%. She attributes the lambing result to abortion, due to toxoplasmosis and hairy shaker disease, and ewe condition.

"This year I watched more carefully and moved them around more often. I also had better quality pasture on hand because I'd re-newed a lot."

The two-tooths were also inoculated with Toxovax.

Work-in-progress is the breeding of a consistent Romney-Texel line of ewes.

"You could say that what we were running was a bit of a licorice allsorts mob...we used a mix of Romney and Texel rams and they were breeding to the extremes."

She took the first steps of establishing a true-to-type line prior to tupping this year, separating ewes into Texel-looking, Romney-looking and Romney-Texel mobs.

The Romney mob, mostly older ewes, went to a terminal sire; the Texels to Romney rams; and the Romney-Texels to Romney-Texel rams.

With much of the property's pastures well and truly run out Pip has embarked on an ambitious pasture redevelopment programme.

A detailed pasture history and development plan has been drawn up. Each year 100ha is sown with either crop (rape, barley, oats) or a permanent pasture mix of Nui, Ruanui, Moata, Huia white clover and Porto cocksfoot.

The run out cocksfoot pastures have been top worked, sown with winter brassica crop (rape or kale/swedes), then direct drilled with a black oat crop which is harvested for silage, then direct drilled with new pasture at 26.5kg/ha.

Last year $8795 went on seeds and $15,653 on fertiliser and lime.

Also on the cards is subdivision to reconfigure the 40 paddocks, varying in size from 5ha to 20ha, into 8 to 10ha blocks.

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