Hill Padua Newsletter 16/7/2014

Anthony and Geraldine have had a trip of a life time with Scenic Tours a South American Experiences
Galapagos Islands, Machu Picchu, a trip on the Amazon River then 10 days to the Antarctica, a couple of days at the Iguazu Falls then 4 days in Rio de Janeiro.

Anthony attended the World Merino Conference in Stellenbosch which is 70 ks out of Cape Town in South Africa. Met plenty of farmers and saw lots of sheep, believe me we are up there with our Plain Bodied, Fertile Multi Purpose Merinos (MPM)
Our sheep are all in good condition with lots of lambs. Tailed 120% – Ram Breeders average 122% Flock -118%.

Rams are all sorted and our ASBVS are back all ready. The results are very good and the information about our Rams can now be viewed on our Website www.hillpaduampm.com.au on For sale page under Rams.

Our Sale date is 22/9/2014 worth your while to come and have a look even if you don’t intend to buy there is always next year. We will also have a display at the Mingenew Expo on the 18th & 19th of September 2014.

The last of our Lambs went to WAMCO at the end of June with 105 of them Averaging $167.80, 74 little ewes averaging $123.00

What we are doing with our Sheep is a NO BRAINER. Check us out.

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 21^st 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, 1^ST 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 9^th 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 23^rd 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

What a good start the northern Ag region has had this year. We’ve had almost the same amount of rain since the 16^th of May than we received for all of last year. There are some parts of the state still looking for the break, with a bit of luck that might happen this week for them.

December 22^nd and 23^rd saw our annual AI program carried out, with over 800 Ewes mated to 4 rams. Without fail, these two days were once again very warm with the fans in the shed working overtime and buckets of sweat lost by most people.

The ewes where scanned on the 24^th of March with the AI Group showing 90% success, and the paddock mated up to 97%.

It has been a hard summer for feed with the stubbles running out very quickly and not much grass on offer. Due to this we purchased some more Moylan feeders, with the Lick feeder inserts and had them in the paddock with a mix of lupins and oats. This worked very well with very minimal loss on the ground, although the kangaroos soon caught on. The ewes worked their own feed rate out with most mobs averaging there 300 to 350 grams per head per day. This was enough to keep the ewes in good condition right through to lambing on the 18th of May, when the feed just started to germinate. The lambs have grown well, with lots of twins on the ground so far. Next week lamb marking will commence, just before they get to big.

The weather lambs have had the same feeder, but without the lick feeder insert, with small mobs being turned off regularly since mid February. Prices have held firm all summer with 42/44Kg live weight averaging $130/head +.

The young rams have all so grown well with muscle scanning measuring in excess of 30mm on the 1^st of April. They were also shorn and fleece weighted on the 29^th April with weights pushing past 5.2kg, length out to 65mm and micron averaging 17.2 for the 6 months.

The main ewe shearing has been brought forward this year from September to the 11^th to 13^th of April. For the 6 and ½ months the length was from 69 to 75 mm, yielding 59 to 62.6 %, Strength 40 to 54 n/k, and micron from 19 to 20.7. Not bad for a summer shearing.

On June 10th Ken Duxson classed the orange tag ewes into their breeding groups, which were shorn last week. There are approximately 300 of these surplus, which are now for sale.

Last year’s ram sale went off well, producing a good turn out and only having a few minor hiccups. This year’s ram auction will be held on the 26^th of September, a week after Mingenew Expo following similar format as last years. We look forward to the same success and an even bigger crowd.

Anthony and Geraldine left on the 23^rd of May to Jet set around the globe with a trip to Canada, via America including Las Vagas then on to London and Singapore on the way home. Sounds like they had a great time with lots of photos on show when they got home on the 5th of June. It was a busy 10 days home to put the camper on the ute, in-between Kens classing, to make it to Broome to join the tag a long group for a tour of the Kimberley.

We will have a tent again at Mingenew Expo, so call in and have a chat and a look around. Hope everyone’s season turns out with plenty of rain throughout the state between now and then.

Cheers for now from the Hill Padua MPM team.

Anthony 0427541155 Adam 0427541152 David 0437541164