Dry times have seen the Ettershank family, Murrayview, Murrabit, seek out pasture alternatives, to improve productivity.
Murrayview was currently part of a regional trial to grow saltbush, particularly on retired irrigation ground, part-owner Simon Ettershank, who runs the property with his father David, said.
“As we know, there is not as much water around as there used to be and it’s very expensive to buy, so I suppose it’s looking at options to make that ground productive, without water,” he said. Saltbush seed and seedlings had been planted over part of the 2000hectare property, which borders the Murray River.
“It’s handy in autumn, when there is not much feed around,” Mr Ettershank said.
“The main advantage is that is drought tolerance – if managed correctly, the sheep get good feed off it.”
Murrayview was one of ten trial sites for testing saltbush plants as an alternative feed, Western Murray Land Improvement Group project officer Rick Ellis said.
The trials had shown sheep display a preference for certain types of the plant, which had been cloned.
The clones were selected for higher digestability and palatability for livestock.
Mr Ettershank said Murrayview was running 2300 adult ewes, including 900 young sheep, this season, with the plan to increase stocking rates to 2700 next year. Initially based on Wonganella bloodlines, more recently Tamaleuca rams had been introduced to the flock. About 500 ewes were also joined to White Suffolks, for prime lamb production.
Mr Ettershank said the property aimed to turn off large framed sheep, with fast maturing lambs, looking at key traits of fleece weight, growth rate and fertility. Ewes were joined at a rate of one and a half percent, while maidens were slightly higher, at two per cent, for a May drop.
Mr Ettershank said the property was part of both the Lifetime Ewe management and Bestwool/Bestlamb programs, with the aim of increasing production targets.
But he said the biggest challenge was still narrowing the gap between scanning and marking.
“We scanned 128pc of lambs and we marked 105pc, that showed there was a big loss between scanning and marking,” Mr Ettershank said.“I think that is pretty much nation wide, that trend. That is one of your big profit drivers - fertility and lambing rate - if you can put it up by 10pc, you are doing well.”
He said while there were no clear cut answers, the tools provided by the management programs were helping. Assessing and pregnancy scanning ewes, pastures and supplementary feeding should all helped improve survival rates.
“Nutrition, monitoring condition score through pregnancy – we are doing things like scanning our ewes and putting our twin lambing ewes on good irrigated feed and single lamb ewes feed on dry land native pasture,” he said. Pastures included irrigated sub clovers and ryegrasses, supplemented by native grasses.
The flock was shorn in September, returning a 21 micron cut, in a “bold, crimping style,” Mr Ettershank said.
Lambs were sold as suckers and surplus ewes in October, most likely directly to the works; dry ewes, animals with heavy, wrinkly skins, small frame and low fleece weight were culled.
He came back onto the farm in 2001.
“We find Merinos a pretty versatile enterprise to be in, you have your meat, your wool and your surplus lamb sales.”