Vic tops JBS awards

In the lamb section Wayne and Sally Hawkins, who farm at Frances, South Australia, with land on either side of the Victoria-SA border, took out the title.

The JBS awards are designed to acknowledge the elite suppliers to the Great Southern program, which is the leading livestock farm assurance program in Australia.

Counting down from a list of the top 10 suppliers, the Gales, Waratah Bay, near Tarwin Lower in Gippsland, were named as the Great Southern Beef Producers of the Year.

Mr Gale said his 809-hectare Ross Farm property near Fish Creek was a family partnership run in conjunction with his father Phillip.

Ross Farm is home to 500 Hereford breeding stock (split for autumn and spring calving) and 350 traded steers and heifers.

All were focused on a finished weight of 600 kilograms liveweight (320-330kg dressed) at age 18 months.

"We're fortunate the property has a coastal location," Mr Gale said.

"This allows us to finish our stock year-round with turn-off peaking in December-January".

Named as the number one JBS lamb supplier, Mr Hawkins said his Circle-H property on the Victorian border was a mixed farming operation.

It involves wheat and barley cropping, small seeds production and clover and lucerne hay grown under a circle-irrigator with water drawn from underground.

He said lambing ewes were shifted under the circle-irrigators in April and completed spring lambs were marketed directly to the JBS Bordertown, SA, plant before the end of September.

Shorn lambs and up 8000 bought-in lambs are typical grazed on stubbles and pasture residue but Circle-H also has a 20-pen feedlot complex that can be utilised when seasons fail.