No secrets in winning formula

14-07-2010 | Not Specified

Kyle Burnett's hogget game-plan is to produce fertile, early maturing sheep using a low-input management system.

"The genetics are there so really it's all about feeding them to capacity, keeping them parasite-free, and mating them at an adequate ram-to-hogget ratio," Kyle says. "There are no secrets."

Kyle's ewe hoggets won the composite section of the New Zealand Ewe Hogget competition.

He runs Hawk Farm, a 360ha medium to rolling downland property at Moa Flat, West Otago. The farm's ewe hoggets are priority fed behind the lambs to guarantee body weight and condition before going to the ram.

Kyle says feeding them well in the lead-up to mating reduces the risk factor of hogget lambing which can be a fickle business at the best of times.

This year the 810 composite hoggets averaged 48kg at mating; in future he'd like to nudge that average closer to 50kg.

Hoggets are mated to a Wiltshire ram and last year scanned 138% and lambed at 102%. Ideally Kyle would like to scan around 130% to get fewer twins and more live singles, and lamb around 105 to 110%.

Kyle, along with his partner Heather Bell, has managed Hawk Farm for the past six years, the last 21⁄2 years under ownership of the Marshall family who farm near Crookston. The property runs between 4500 to 5000 stock units and the prime focus is lamb, beef and venison finishing.

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