Measurement key to improvement in prime lamb operation

Careful management sees the Schurmanns get pregnancy scanning and lambs marked percentages that have increased on average five per cent each year, over the past seven years.

Mr Schurmann said prime lamb had been the main commodity at Kingaroy since his grandparents bought the farm, despite it being in a traditional Merino region.

But seven years ago, he started the transition from buying in a lot of sheep, most of which were 1.5 year-old ewes, to breeding their own Lambpro Primeline Maternal Sheep – and it’s a change that has paid dividends.

“I got sick of buying sheep in at ridiculous prices and not knowing where they came from, nor having any control over their genetics,” Mr Schurmann said.

“We were buying sheep from Naracoorte, elsewhere in SA, NSW, WA and from year to year, we didn’t know what we’d be able to buy or at what prices.”

They are now lambing down 4500 of the ewes, whose breeding was developed by combining New Zealand composite genetics with White Suffolks.

A great advantage of the breed is that the Schurmanns can and are having great success joining ewe lambs.

The lambs are born in mid-June and joined from March 23 for five weeks the following year, meaning they are about nine months old.

“We’re averaging roughly 90 per cent in-lamb of entire drop of ewe lambs, and of those 90 per cent, it’s just so linear – 55 per cent will carry multiples.

“Year to year, the numbers only vary one or two per cent.”

The also use teasers on the ewe lambs. All empty ewe lambs are sold off.

They lamb down in August-September, and their lambs are weaned off at 10 or 11 weeks.

The following year, these ewe lambs are joined at the same time as the mature ewes, in mid-January, also for five weeks, and Mr Schurmann said they got an average of 85 per cent back in-lamb.

They pregnancy test the ewes at the end of March, and then any ewes that are empty goes out with rams for four weeks.

This joining schedule, essentially of two five-week blocks including a four-week back up, means the family gets a lot of use out of their rams. Less than one per cent of the ewes are empty after that back up period.

Managing the ewes, particularly ewe lambs, has been helped by tagging them all with electronic NLIS identification (eID) tags. Using them in conjunction with the auto-drafter, means any ewe lamb whose growth is lagging behind, can be inspected and any issues addressed. They can also be separated into weight ranges and fed accordingly.

“We’ve also done some work with Agriculture Victoria about ewe lambs’ fertility and certain weight ranges, so we get our ewe lambs up to an average of about 52kg-53kg before joining.

“Once you get above that 53kg, you start to get more multiples.”

Mr Schurmann said these composites were hardy and great milkers and mothers.

“They’re a fantastic animal. Their ability to put on condition on just about nothing is amazing.

“The biggest challenge is keeping weight off them.

“They’re just so efficient.”

They achieved 143 per cent lambs marked for ewes joined this year, their best ever, and are aiming to increase it to 150 per cent next year.

Mr Schurmann found the Lifetime Ewe Management and High Performance Weaner courses very helpful in getting this system working, particularly getting the ewe lambs in-lamb for the second time.

For example, they ensure the ewe lambs are gaining 100 grams a day over joining by providing them with feed ration that meets their energy and protein requirements.

Everything that is fed to their animals is feed tested – and Mr Schurmann said it was vital to ensure their feed budget was being spent most effectively.

They have also built extensive containment areas and an on-property feedlot, as well as renovating nearly all the pastures of their farm.

In fact, more than 500 hectares of the 650ha property is devoted to grazing and Mr Schurmann said that ratio was increasing as they looked to grow their flock by 500 ewes a year.

At the moment, about 50ha of pasture renovation is underway, and Mr Schurmann said was about the last of it to do, after years of work.

“We’ve gone from ryegrass pastures to phalaris and fescue, because the ryegrass wasn’t persisting.

“We’re getting terrific production out of our phalaris pasture.”

They also subdivided paddocks to better manage pasture and do about one kilometre of tree planting for shelter belts a year.

“We also use containment areas every year and it means we’re never short of feed and have been able to increase our stocking rate,” Mr Schurmann said.

Straight after ewes are pregnancy-tested, they are split into singles and multiples, conditioned scored and put into containment areas for five or six weeks, where they are fed to their energy requirements.

Mr Schurmann said that lets them build up a feed wedge, helped by fertiliser applications.

They do soil tests in different paddocks each year and also rank paddocks A, B or C to divide where to apply more fertiliser, including phosphorus.

“At the moment, we’re averaging nine ewes to the hectare,” he said.

“And we’re aiming towards 10 next year.”

He said increasing the stocking rate was possible thanks to the guidance from experts including James Stewart of Vickery Brothers and Matthew Barber of Western AG.

“We’ve got a very good season this year, so we’re hoping to turn off around 310 kilogram carcase weight per hectare.

“If we can get up to 10 ewes to the hectare, we could average 360kg-odd carcase weight per hectare.”

The family has a feedlot of three pens with 1500-head capacity and with containment areas, which expands the capacity by 2500 head. Mr Schurmann said it also reduced the reliance on summer crops to finish off these lambs.

The lambs are fed a crushed grain mix that is achieving an average daily weight gain of 350g .

They target 24-26kg cwt range and sell most lambs directly to processors.

Mr Schurmann said they get fantastic carcass feedback from processors.

This is the first year they’ve electronically tagged all their terminal lambs, which he said would help them better manage their performance in the feedlot.

Lambs are introduced into the feedlot in appropriate weight ranges and with use of the electronic identification tags, they can manage performance on an individual basis, such as removing lambs that are not making the desired weight gains.