Bulls help build capital stock numbers

Home for the holidays, Simon Vernon puts the finishing touches to a new farm bridge.

01-03-2010 | Not Specified

One of the key aims of the Vernon's five-year plan is to increase the farm's carrying capacity from 3500 stock units to 4000 stock units and finish 1000 lambs and 200 cattle annually.

More water reticulation and subdivision is planned.

This season the farm will put about 1100 ewes to the ram - a drop of 100 on the previous year.

"Last year we sold all our ewe lambs," Gordon says. "Next year we will probably keep them, although if we can get $95 for them we will sell 100 and keep 200. The beauty of the current system is that we can always fill the gap by buying more cattle or taking on more grazers."

The previous owners ran a Romney flock and the Vernons have kept the base of this while also experimenting with Border Leicesters. Breeding ewes now go to either Romney or Border Leicester rams sourced from local breeders John Reeves and Graeme Sattrup. A terminal ewe mob, made up of older and poorer conditioned ewes, goes to Suffolk or Hampshire rams.

Lambs are finished at 16-17kg carcaseweight (CW) and Gordon says the aim of experimenting with different crossbreeds is to find out which is best for getting more lambs away before Christmas.

"Ideally we'd like to get 400 lambs away instead of 200."

This year the terminal-mated ewes will begin lambing early in July, which is earlier than previously. "We don't know if lambing this early will work, but the aim again is to target those shoulder season prices of $80-$90/lamb."

Gordon says the reason for using Border Leicesters over the Romney ewes is to see if ewe performance can be improved through crossbreeding.

"Last year was a bunfight because we just stuck all the rams out with all the ewes and didn't know what was going to come out of what. But we are more scientific now and we've split the terminal mobs and the breeding mobs."

Jenni says they've also begun tagging the two-tooths with coloured tags so they can identify the younger ewes.

Last year's lambing was 112% (ewes to ram), "so there is definitely room for improvement".

The Vernons pregnancy scanned last season but only to identify empty and pregnant sheep. This year they will scan for twins and singles. Teaser rams were also used before mating the terminal ewes.

Jenni admits they still have a lot to learn about farming sheep, particularly when it comes to finishing lambs.

"We didn't even know what barbers pole was when we first started and it has taken us a while to appreciate just how fragile lambs are compared with cattle."

Their dairying experience has made cattle management much easier. This season the farm is carrying 400 cattle of varying ages, including 200 dairy heifer grazers and 12 cull cows which were used to rear 36 beef calves.

Gordon says they will hand rear autumn calves this year.

The farm is also running 100 bull calves which are being sharefarmed in partnership with a dairy farmer who rears them and supplies them at 100kg. The Vernons will farm the weaners to 300kg, then sell them to a finisher, with the proceeds from the sale split 50:50 between the Vernons and the calf rearer.

Jenni says this arrangement is fairly unusual but has good potential. Whether it is beneficial for both parties is yet to be seen "but we had to be proactive because weaner calves were too expensive to buy in the yards. So this is another way of utilising pasture and generating income without the capital cost of buying and rearing stock".

She says the sharefarmed weaners will be fed hay and silage to get them up to weight faster. This year the Vernons made 200 big bales of silage and 500 conventional bales of hay, which will be fed out using handling equipment that came from the dairy farm.

The rest of the cattle are mostly Hereford-Friesian beef steers and heifers along with some South Devon cattle which are showing good potential.

Steers will be finished at 220-240kgCW at 18-24 months and the heifers will be finished at 180-220kgCW.

Gordon says the aim is to keep increasing heifer numbers and target the local trade market. Eventually he would like to be farming all their own beef cattle, with the traditional Angus and Hereford breeds being his preference "if we can find them".

The Vernons fully own 25% of the cattle on the farm, but the income from sharefarming bulls and grazing dairy heifers will help them build beef cattle numbers.

Heifer grazing provides good cashflow, something the Vernons have missed since the milk cheques stopped coming.

"That's one of the big differences we've noticed. With sheep and beef farming you've always got to be thinking about what you can sell next to bring the income in."

Gordon says they enjoy being able to sell product to whoever they choose and their involvement with the beef group has made them "think outside the square", opening their eyes to potential opportunities to get product direct to the market in future.

"You've certainly got a lot more flexibility with sheep and beef."

Not being tied to the daily routine of milking is another bonus.

"We are making less money farming sheep and beef, but it's a better lifestyle," he says.

"I like being able to knock off work at 3pm if I want to. The other day I was crutching lambs and it was so hot that after I'd done 100 I decided that I'd do the rest the next day. You can't knock off early when you're milking cows."

After many years of local-government service, Jenni is also enjoying the challenge of practical sheep and beef farming. While she still does consultancy work in the resource management field, the farm is now her main focus.

"Its fun, and that's what life should be about."

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