Low-risk oats saving lambs

Summer crops and lucerne have been used to provide out of season feed for prime lamb systems in the Western District, however tougher conditions have made spring more risky for holding and finishing large numbers of stock.

Cloven Hills principals and Southern Prime Lamb Group committee members Chris and Kate Dorahy, Nareen, last year trialled sowing a 20-hectare paddock with oats as a "safe feed" option following three consecutively tough springs in six years.

The Dorahys will be attending Sheepvention in the sheep technology pavilion where they will talk about the success of their oat trial.

"Summer crops can fail without decent spring rain, so we needed an alternative food source to be safe," Mr Dorahy said.

He said when managing a highly fertile prime lamb flock, having flexible feed systems to cater for a failed spring was vital.

"The later you lamb the more lambs you have but the less time you have to finish them on green feed," he said.

Cloven Hills previously budgeted on providing enough feed for 2000 lamb weaners over spring and summer with a target 500 grams of grain and 1 kilogram of dry feed per head per day over a 60-day period – which equated to about 60 and 120 tonnes, respectively.

"It takes a while to get lambs going on grain and is expensive and time consuming to feed out grain and hay, particularly during December-January, which is always a busy time," he said.

"I started thinking about whether we could achieve this by putting lambs onto a standing oat crop as a low risk option, given winter rainfall is fairly reliable in our area, even in drier years.

"To achieve this we budgeted on growing 20ha of oats with a target yield of 3t/ha, which I think we easily achieved."

Lambs went onto the mature crop in the first week of December to coincide with when the property's green feed started to deteriorate.

The crop was stocked at 100 lambs/ha and the feed value was 13.1MJ/kg/DM with 86pc digestibility.

Once the lambs had eaten the grain, lick-feeders were placed in the paddock, with the stubble remaining a valuable feed source.

"It really took the pressure off last summer, seeing the lambs backgrounding nicely at growth rates of about 150-250g/head/day over a very hot summer," Mr Dorahy said.

"It's not rocket fuel, but a low risk option for keeping lambs in forward condition.

Once the lambs reached 38kg they were then put into containment pens with open feeders and ryegrass stubble for finishing.

This enabled Cloven Hills to turn off 150-200 lambs every 2-3 weeks during this period, with an average carcase weight of 20-22kg and fat score of 3-4.

This year the Dorahys have sown 50ha, following the success of the initial trial.

Mrs Dorahy said the decision to double the oat paddock sown stemmed from talks of an El Niño and another potential failed spring.

"The oats should give us another safe feed option to keep our largely multiple lambs going in a labour efficient and cost effective manner," she said.

Lambs are weaned onto green pastures at 10-12 weeks of age.

The oats provided the next step for lambs ready to go to market while ensuring they were not get set-back in weight gain.

The alternative feed option enables the operation to capitalise on markets during these tough seasons by providing a back-up food source to hold lambs.

"Supply increases as producers off-load numbers during failed seasons and we know that is never going to change, so it is about spreading-out risk by giving flexibility to target various market options," she said.

"If you have a high fertility system, it is about capitalising on putting as many lambs on the ground as possible and growing them out in the shortest time to maximise the kilograms of meat per hectare.

"However, you need to get the system right to manage the stock properly to achieve their full genetic potential."