Approach to flock well-defined

14-07-2010 | Gerard Hall

Dipton couple Eddie and Grace Thwaites have a straightforward approach to farming.

They focus on breeding an easy care Coopworth ewe flock that has good wool, is parasite and footrot-resistant, and produces good lamb numbers and solid carcaseweights.

Lambing from the end of August, their 1810 mixed-age ewes this year tailed 2842 lambs (158%). Continuing the performance of previous years, 833 lambs were killed before Christmas.

In the first of the three pre-Christmas drafts in mid-November through Alliance Group, 349 lambs weighed in at 18.39kg CW ($97.69), followed a week later by another 224 lambs a kilogram lighter than the first draft, fetching $90.85. Another 260 lambs two weeks later weighed 18.05kg CW to return $83/head.

The first draft is taken pre-weaning when the bigger cryptorchid lambs, those 38kg liveweight (LW) and better, are run off.

To make the job easier, Eddie and Grace set up their Prattley yards in the covered yards to give several extra drenching races. Once in the yards, ewes are run off to one side while the bigger crypt lambs are drafted off to the other for weighing and the final sort. The rest of the lambs go straight into the Prattleys where they get their pre-weaning anthelmintic before going back with the ewes.

Eddie says this season just one draft went below 18kg CW, a deliberate decision as the early season premium was going off.

"We would have had to put another couple of kilograms carcaseweight on them to get the same money."

Lambs are weaned and sorted into lines just before Christmas. As the season progresses the cut-off LW is gradually ratcheted up to 40-42kg.

Lambs are not normally drenched at weaning and the timing of any future drenches is determined through faecal egg counts.

Eddie admits the Fecpak has not been taken off the shelf as often this year.

Even so, drenching intervals are now out most years to six to eight weeks. The trigger point is a count of around 300eggs/gram and this year lambs were drenched every four to five weeks.

Other than a Ewegard and five-in-one clostridial pre-lamb, ewes do not see a drench gun. They are vaccinated to ward off toxoplasmosis while the ewe hoggets are vaccinated to protect against campylobacter and vibriosis.

Some of the earlier lambs, particularly those drafted off the mother, are yielding (LW:CW) up to 50%.

Eddie and Grace originally bought their Coopworth rams from former Balfour breeders Peter and Lyn Stevens, but now buy their genetics from Lance and Beverly Wilson's Te Rae stud.

Using SIL index information they buy from higher price brackets.

Eddie says that if they need six or seven rams, he and Grace usually peg 10-12 from a mob of maybe 25-30. They then go through the index information, not always picking the best indexes, but choosing the rams they like the most.

As well as being structurally correct, rams that are loaded on to the trailer for the trip back to Dipton must have good length, eye muscle, loin and a good solid hindquarter. Wool is not forgotten: Rams must be evenly covered with not too much over the head.

Ewes are shorn every eight months.

The total wool clip amounts to 20,000kg annually.

"We're not running around after cast sheep, the wool is of a good quality, there is no cotting and it is better coloured," Grace says.

The couple's criteria for selecting their keeper ewe hoggets is also well-defined. As well as being born a twin or triplet, like the rams they must be well-boned and have good eye muscle, and excellent loin and hindquarters.

The initial selection is made at weaning when the top half is drafted off. Fed to similar levels as the works lambs, the selection process continues through the summer until the final cut is made early in May, a few days before the rams go out.

As the ewe lambs are run through the yards over summer, any that do not stack up for conformation or show with dags or any sign of a foot problem are drafted off.

This year the final cut was made early in May. The mob of just over 600 was whittled back to 517 and put to the ram.

Offering the best supply option, the 96 cull ewe lambs were killed at Lean Meats, hanging up at 24.84kg CW, returning $5kg CW, or $124.18/head.

Unlike the ewe flock which is mated to Coopworth rams, the ewe hoggets are mated to half Coopworth-half Texel ram lambs, but just for two cycles. When run across the scales a month earlier on April 20 the ewe hoggets averaged 57kg LW. Put across the scales the same day the two-tooth ewes averaged 79kg LW and their mixed-age contemporaries 91kg LW

Eddie says they are looking forward to improving on last year's hogget lambing result. It was tripped up by a dose of abortion through the mob just before lambing. Test results showed listeria to be the culprit, apparently picked up from the soil because the mob had not been fed baleage during the winter.

In the end 312 lambs were weaned from 250 hoggets. They were drafted in mid-January with more than half (171) going to the works and killing out at 18.68kg CW.

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