TIM Leeming has a three-tiered approach that is helping him to achieve his goal of driving more profit by having a high stocking rate on his sheep farm in south-west Victoria.
For the Pigeon Ponds farmer from north of Coleraine, growing grass, eating grass and keeping grass are the keys to success.
He obviously has the formula right with his self-replacing Coopworth composite prime lamb flock.
Two years ago we had 3000 sheep on 1150ha. With a newly purchased 850ha property, today that figure stands at 7000 and he hopes to hit his target of 9000 within the next two years.
Mr Leeming will explain how he has used improved grazing techniques to achieve the massive growth when he speaks at upcoming pasture updates at Harrow and Naracoorte.
The updates on July 23 in Harrow and July 24 in Naracoorte are being hosted by the Grassland Society of Southern Australia which has been contracted by Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) to provide six pasture updates a year for the next three years.
Mr Leeming said flexibility and balance were needed when aiming for a high stocking rate.
"Stocking rates are the biggest profit driver but it has to be a balancing act," he said.
"You can go too far. I want to maintain a higher than average stocking rate for the region without turning paddocks into dustbowls. It's very expensive
to re-sow pastures so we make sure we don't over-graze."
The farm currently has dry sheep equivalent of about 11 and aims to reach 13.5-15.5 within the next two years. The average in the area is about 10 DSE.
Mr Leeming's three-tiered approach to the year covers growing grass after the autumn break, consuming heavily from August to December and then keeping the pastures intact during the dry summer months.
"We monitor the dry matter levels over summer and if they go to our minimum targets were take the stock off," he said.
The farm uses feedlot-style containment areas during the autumn and on the autumn break.
"We can shut up the ewes for three or four weeks. We have to spend a fair bit on feed at that time but it means our pastures are up and running when we need them."
Mr Leeming admits the farm was fairly run down when he purchased it two years ago but says he could see the potential.
"About a third had good perennial base pastures, a third had good soil fertility and a third was pretty ordinary," he said.
He has aimed to build up fertility and expand pastures, while renovating the 'ordinary' land.
He has sown about 330ha of perennial pastures over the two years, about half phalaris-based and half perennial ryegrass.
The use of summer crops in spring in wetter areas, cereal crops in tablelands and spraying out onion weeds has helped the growth.
The farm has also erected 30km of fencing and 12km of water systems in the past two years.
The property started with a very young flock and has kept 30 per cent of its lambs as breeders.
In the past about 10-20 per cent of the farm's stocking rate is flexible.
"Currently we have a big challenge to manage grazing on the new farm as internal paddocks were large, poorly fenced and /or encompassing a number of land classes," he said.
"We are aggressively building sheep numbers and once our target is achieved we can go back to incorporating some flexibility.
"We aim to convert grass into cash flow. We look at the season and tend to use cattle for our flexible stocking rate. If it's a bad year we just don't
get that stock. Building flexibility is important."
Mr Leeming is pleased he made the investment in the farm.
"You've got to have a go. We saw an opportunity to improve the land and business. We're confident in the sheep business. We produce quality food that has strong
domestic and export demand...it's a good product."
The Grassland Society and MLA pasture update program will include veterinary surgeon Dr David Rendell on getting the most out of Lucerne and phalaris pasture without losing stock, consultant Peter Schroder on the importance of legumes and their management, Richard Prusa from Heritage Seeds - Seedmark on productive phalaris, and Lee Menhennet from Incitic Pivot on driving pasture growth and phosphorous efficiency.
DEPI prime lamb specialist Peter Bailey will outline research showing how lambs can achieve 400g a day from birth to weaning from pasture.
Consultant Tim Prance will also present a session on MLA tools that can be used by producers to improve their systems.
