The challenge of managing small mobs of multiple-bearing ewes to improve sheep productivity is faced by many mixed producers also dealing with paddocks designed for large-scale cropping.
Merino breeder Pat Millear, Stud Park South, Willaura, pregnancy scans his 8,000 ewes.
He then splits them into mobs based on pregnancy status to manage preferential feeding during winter and the lambing period.
Pat, who farms with his wife Sarah and four daughters, is part of a new Meat & Livestock Australia Producer Demonstration Site (PDS) project, trialling temporary fencing to create smaller paddocks within existing fencing.
This is to allow for smaller mobs and to spell other paddocks in preparation for lambing. The three-year PDS project, with four demonstration sites, is being coordinated by local farming systems group, Willaura BestWool/Best Lamb (BWBL).
MLA Producer Consultation and Adoption general manager, Michael Crowley, said the PDS program was designed to provide farming systems groups with capacity to evaluate locally-specific tactics to optimise feedbases and boost livestock production.