Family avoids ‘metal disease’

01-06-2010 | Not Specified

It isn't easy to find farm machinery in the Aldertons' sheds.

They don't have a huge investment in machinery because they employ contractors for most of the cultivation work, making silage, and for ewe and hogget shearing.

They have a Racewell sheep handler for dagging, weighing lambs and tagging the two-tooths, a boom spray unit and two weed wipers for thistle control, a couple of chainsaws, and pruning ladders. They also have an 85hp tractor with front-end loader, mower and silage wagon. Each farm has a two and four wheeler motorbike. Then there is a 1974 Land Rover and two 4WD Subaru Legacys as farm runabouts.

The farms are subdivided into 100 paddocks with about 50 on each farm. More subdivision is planned.

The farms are run as breeding and finishing units and rams are the only stock bought in.

In good years they prefer to be under-stocked and have too much grass rather than risk introducing disease or internal parasite resistance by buying in store stock for finishing.

They weigh 10% of ewes at mating. With the drier seasons bodyweights (BW) have been a bit lighter during the past three years. Ronald says knowing the ewe BW gives them an indication of the potential number of lambs to expect for the season. The target BW for mating is 68-70kg.

The rams go out with the six-tooth and older ewes on April 9 and 10 and the two and four-tooths on April 27. They put a harness on after nine days, then take it off on day 18 and put out terminal sires for the later cycling ewes. The ewes with bigger
udders are taken out and set-stocked for lambing, then the ewes that have been marked are set-stocked a week later. After 18 days only about 5% of the ewes end up in the late lambing mob.

"It means we have a constant supply of lambs drafted for the works from December through to June."

They have been wintering the ewes in two mobs, with one mob on each farm. However, because feed covers are the lowest they have ever been, they are doing things a little differently this winter.

The ewes will be run in four mobs. The two and four-tooth ewes will be wintered on Hillcrest and the six-tooth and older ewes on the Perkins block. It is a little warmer than Hillcrest because the paddocks lie to the north. The warmer environment is easier on the older ewes for rearing a lamb.

The Aldertons don't scan. All the ewes are checked and condition scored (CS) regularly. The number of ewes wintered is secondary to ensuring they maintain condition. The lighter condition ewes are progressively drafted off and either culled or given more space for preferential feeding.

"Looking after the bottom end improves lamb birthweights and survival and lifts our overall flock performance," Ronald says.

The older ewes on the Perkins block start lambing the first week of September and the two and four-tooths on Hillcrest start three weeks later. The two-tooths also get their first dose of Campylovexin mid to late-February, then a second dose towards the end of March.

All the ewes (including two-tooths) are vaccinated with 5-in-1 before lambing. They avoid drenching the ewes for worms.

The Aldertons have a FECPAK unit and occasionally carry out faecal egg counts (FEC) on each mob.

The worm challenge period is in the spring when the larvae population on paddocks is at its peak. A faecal egg count reduction test (FECRT) will be done this spring to check the efficacy of their drench.

To minimise pasture contamination the lambs are drenched pre-weaning and again when they are weaned, then at four to six-week intervals.

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