Programs including Lifetime Ewe Management have helped the McDougall family improve their long-standing wool growing operation at Tatyoon.
Sean McDougall, 28, represents the fourth generation to farm at the Rosevale property, where sheep continue to be the main enterprise.
The family also runs beef cattle and crops on a farm that totals 1335 hectares.
Their flock includes 2800 Merino ewes of which 2000 are joined to Merino rams and 800 of them to White Suffolks. Most of the ewes, including all those joined to Merinos and 300 of those joined to the terminal sire, lamb down in September for a traditional spring lambing.
About 500 of the Merino ewes joined to the terminal sire lamb in May.
One change they’ve made in recent years is increasing the number of rams put out with maiden ewes to about two per cent, with rams put out at a ratio of 1-1.5pc for the rest of the flock.
Sean said that was a strategy suggested in the Lifetime Ewe Management course, which he did a few years ago.
The course also showed them the benefits of using containment yards as a feed base management tool. While in the holding area, sheep are fed a three-day rotation of hay, barley and straw. The McDougalls put the sheep in fenced-off the area at the start of April.
“When we get an autumn break, having sheep in the containment yards lets the pasture get away and lets us start sowing crop early,” Sean said.
The rams are put out with the ewes in the containment yards and Sean estimated this year, they got an extra 15 per cent lambs scanned, which could also be thanks to increased pasture growth due to summer rains.
This year, they started sowing on Anzac Day into paddocks that had a bit of rain. Sean said they continued to have about 400ha sown to crops, as they had in the past few years.
He said the crops were growing well this season. Sean said they were likely to reach their long-term average rainfall of about 550-600mm this year, which was particularly welcome as the last two years had been much drier.
At the end of May, the sheep were put onto good pastures. They pregnancy test the ewes and put those carrying twins into smaller mobs on paddocks with better feed and more shelter.
The farming team, which includes Sean, his father Bruce and one full-time employee, are working to get five-year terms from their pasture.
