Planning paves path to profits

TIM Clarke is a pragmatist. For the Western District grazier it is all about minimising risk – while maximising profits.And with his latest acquisition of seven adjoining properties in Victoria’s prime South-West slopes, the goal posts have moved once again.“Everyone I know is going to crop 50 per cent more, and I don’t blame them,” says Mr Clarke, looking out across a manicured laneway at Minjah Pastoral Company, now a 2673-hectare prime lamb and beef property some 20 minutes south of Penshurst.“But we have an advantage of being able to run an average 10 ewes/ha, so while we have the right rainfall and soil type for cropping I believe that lamb production can be competitive over a five-to-10-year period.”Mr Clarke’s entire management philosophy at Minjah is based around lowering risk in order to hit key performance indices – in the case of his lamb enterprise, to produce 18-20kg lambs at 16-18 weeks and run 20 DSE to the hectare – nine years out of 10.And if over a 5-10 year time frame the lamb enterprise does not achieve similar returns to other enterprises, he won’t hesitate to make the switch to dairy or cropping to make the operation pay its way.“Things are what they are, so if you execute them to your best ability and if someone is not going to pay what you need, then you have to change,” he says. Since buying Minjah and the connecting six properties in June 2005 – a deal that he insists was possible thanks to a large helping of “lady luck” – he has stuck to an impressive five-year plan that aims to build first-cross lamb numbers to 20,000, cattle to 400 head, and cropping to 400ha.Grinning, he says he’s well on track.Currently he runs a 16,000-head replacement first-cross ewe flock that he joins to Poll Dorset rams, 300 Hereford and Angus cattle, and intends to sow 240ha of canola and 100ha of barley for 150ha of summer crop for lambs.He prefers large-framed, plain-bodied first-cross ewes from South Australia and the Riverina, and once his numbers hit 20,000 intends to buy 3000 replacements each year. Having trialled a number of terminal sires and composite breeds, he has found the Poll Dorset has early maturing characteristics that enable a minimum of 75pc of lambs to hit target trade weight at 16-18 weeks, and having Merino influence in the ewes means that they cycle better.By buying replacement ewes rather than breeding his own, pasture can be rested by not having to carry lambs on post weaning.“It is all about producing maximum net dollars per hectare – the best gross is not always the best net,” Mr Clarke explains.By harvesting lambs as suckers and buying replacement ewes each year, Mr Clarke has been able to cut his DSE numbers by up to a third over the tough summer months and rest much of his pastures.But improving on the average local stocking rate of 15 to 20DSE, has not come about without some serious work.Investing in water, fencing and pastures has been the focus – an area Mr Clarke believes the greatest returns can come from. The properties are being re-fenced into series of laneways that feed off into 8-10ha paddocks. Paddocks are fed by a reticulated water system involving two-inch pipes from bores connected to tanks then troughs.Every fence post, tap and pipe joiner has been laid (and plotted) using GPS so that if anyone needs to make an adjustment a computerised map is available.This has come at a cost – but one Mr Clarke rationalises with the belief that a system that at the press of a button shows where every fixture is on a computer screen will pay off in the long run both in labour costs and attracting staff to work at Minjah.While baulking at the thought of how much fencing has been laid, he calculates over 40 kilometres of poly-pipe, around 14 poly tanks, and four 20,000 gallon tanks have been installed by himself and his three staff.“I would hate to think how much fencing we’ve done, and we still have more to go.”The intensive paddock design is something Mr Clarke said he developed by picking the best aspects of a variety of set stock, cell, and rotational grazing methods he has trialled and researched, and said the outcome allowed controlled grazing and provided minimal risk.He admits at the beginning of his farming days this controlled grazing scheme would have been scoffed at. But for Mr Clark changing from a set stocker who autumn lambed and calved to one that now rotationally grazes dry stock, spring calves and lambs and set stocks while progeny is reared is simply about remaining competitive.The fact that Mr Clarke is on track to achieve his production goals in the next two years is a big part of the motivation for investing heavily in Minjah Pastoral, and one that he admits is a key driver for him staying in the industry.Whether another six generations of Clarkes continue the farming tradition, Mr Clarke believes time will only tell.But if he sets up the right model, producing a sustainable profit in theory, he says, they could.