Ensuring the current and future profitability and genetic strength of her Merino flock was behind Georgia White's address to the MerinoLink 2021 conference held in Wagga Wagga.
The graduate of Marcus Oldham Agricultural College, Waurn Ponds, Victoria is now putting her academic experience to test as she works alongside her father and an employee on the family property Talbragar, Coolah, and it's Merino flock and Angus herd.
"We are a small operation but have been doing a lot of research with the help of Jason Trompf into reproductive trials and collecting data, especially as we are restocking after the drought," she said. "Our flock has presented us with a lot of learning opportunities and during the drought it showed we could manipulate the sheep."
As an example, Ms White pointed to the increase in fertility where the scanning percentage during the last three years has lifted from 110pc to 190pc.
"The survival of the lambs has also increased to where we now have 80pc plus average in the twin-lambing ewes and 69pc of the twins from the maiden ewes," she said.
"We were always a reasonably fertile flock, of dual-purpose Merino's based on Cassilis Park bloodlines and our usual scanning has been around 160pc up to 180pc for the entire flock."
The immediate task Ms White told the audience was post drought restocking and with their maidens making up the largest proportion of Merino to Merino joinings, the challenge was to lift the production of the first lambers.
It is easy to see those plainer maidens with a bit of extra body fat will have an easier time getting in lamb and raising that lamb
- Georgia White, Talbragar, Coolah
"They have the lowest conception rates and the lowest lamb survival of any class of animal," she said. "So it doesn't really make sense that we all just retaining a lot of maidens and joining them to Merinos is the best way to restock."
Ms White pointed to two avenues available to Merino breeders to increase the size of their flock - visually classing your maidens and increasing maiden ewe performance.
"By joining less maidens to Merinos and more mature ewes to Merinos you get more bang for your buck' ram-wise so you would need less rams to get more lambs so you can afford to spent a bit more money on your rams and that will improve your genetic base," she said.
"And by classing your maidens a bit heavier, you will get a higher survival of lambs from the maiden ewes joined to a first-cross sire than if they had been joined to Merino rams."
The second point, by increasing your maiden ewe performance, Ms White said there will be longterm benefits for your entire flock, by adopting best practice in your maiden ewe management.
"It seems obvious, but it is all about keeping the grass in front of them," she said.
"And of course it all starts from the time of conception, but then hitting your growth targets can only be achieved by having the ewes well fed."
In an interesting departure from the traditional approach of appraising maiden ewes, Ms White referred to their practice of visual classing off-shears; taking out those ewes with a heavy skin type and which has been an interesting learn curve for the keen Merino breeder.
"We also class the maidens in the wool, but when we could see them off-shears, we could also take out those with breech wrinkle," she said. "It has had a very positive affect on the conception rate."
Ms White pointed to a scanning of 144pc in 2020, of maidens joined to Merinos, which she considered a good result.
"In 2021, we split the maidens based on the visual classing where the heavy wrinkle ewes were joined to Border Leicester rams and they scanned 112pc," she said.
"The plainer bodied maidens were joined to Merino rams and scanned 164pc."
Ms White said classing the maidens off-shears was a quick and easy way to take those off skin types out and it has proved a worthwhile exercise with the higher scanning percentage.
"It is easy to see those plainer maidens with a bit of extra body fat will have an easier time getting in lamb and raising that lamb," she said. "And getting them pregnant obviously helps with the increased scanning rate."
To reach her level of fertility expectation, Ms White also sets growth targets from birth through to joining.
Focusing on the potential genetic performance of maiden ewes, Ms White said being involved in current industry programs such as Lifetime Ewe Management (LTEM) and Winning with weaners are good places to start.
Selecting rams based on fertility ASBV's and selecting a balanced Merino with ten pc fleece weight to body weight are crucial criteria to get more maiden Merino ewes in lamb and having those lambs survive through a long productive lifetime.
Knowing your best lambing paddocks, having the optimal mob size and ensuring the pregnant ewes health will all lead to a successful lambing.