Well here we are again halfway through the year. Our Ewes came through the summer O.K but feed after a light year in 2012 meant we had Ewes on lick feeders as they came off the light stubbles. The Rams with the help of Old Man Saltbush a lick feeder seem to do O.K even though the paddock feed was in short supply.
We started the summer with about 700 Ram Lambs and slowly drifted the surplus ones off to Walsh’s and Fletchers as they reached the required weight. Walsh’s get the 18kg – 24kg dressed weight and Fletches got some that are 30kg + dressed we had 6 lambs dress 35kg+. We now have 330 that will be sorted out over the next couple of Months. The Rams have been Shorn, Fleece and Body Weighted. Ram with tag #1 is showing some promise as an A.I Ram with figures over 5 kg Wool 6 months Shearing, Eye Muscle 40mm Genetic Fat of 7mm and Body weight of 83 kg, but we will not know until we get the results of the ASBVS. Micron will be measured closer to Sale Day. We could take Summer Wool Growth like some studs but we think winter Wool Growth is a bit fairer. There were 35 Rams that cut over 5kg of Wool.
A.I last December we decided to only do one day of 400 ewes instead of our usual 2 Days of 800 Ewes. It’s a measure we took to reduce cost as A.I is quite expensive. With the use of Single Sire mob’s we don’t think we will lose very much. The mob David put tags in at 2 weeks of age was 100 Ewes and 104 Lambs. A.I day went off really good with the use of our shearing contractor Mike Henderson’s guy’s that did the heavy work. Our mating period of barely 6 weeks makes for a tidy lamb drop.
The Scanning of our Ewes took place on the 21st March and out of 3049 ewes we found 133 empty (dries), which was very similar to last year. With the comment probable half the Ewes in lamb have twins, much the same as last year so we can expect about 120% lambing again this year.
We managed to sell about 1600 Wether lambs and some Ewe lambs to Walsh’s, 1ST mob of 370 went away in January averaged $81.00 the last few drafts that went averaged $90.00.
Just before shearing we did a worm count on the Ewes and results were very low, recommendation was that we did not need to drench this year so our worm resistance may be getting there. The shearing of the Ewes was April 9th at about 6 Months with Wool length ranging from 68 -77mm, the hoggets were about 9 months with wool length of 87- 97 We had four lines of wool that had NKT ranged from 48-55
RAM SALE DAY IS 23/9/2013 with Private Selection after the Sale. We will have a few Ewes and Rams at Mingenew Expo. We are sponsoring the Quick Shears again this year and will probably provide the wether lambs for that unless Mike Henderson can get another supplier closer.
We have decided to Support the local Primaries agent that lives in Three Springs to do the organizing of the Auction of our Ram Sale this year. Primaries will be the main agent for the Sale on the Monday 23rd September which is the Monday after Mingenew Expo.
We have now marked our lambs with 3154 Ewes had 3810 Lambs making a 120.89 lambing percentage, if we add the dry Ewes to the tally we still get a very good percentage.
LAMBING % IS THE BIGGEST PROFIT DRIVE
Cheers from all at Hill Padua (Pad-ewe-a)
Anthony 0427541155
Adam 0427541152
David 0437541164