CW Hardwicksmith Sheepfinal
There is still gain to be made from genetic changes to the sheep flock
according to Taranaki Monitor Farm community group member Bruce Cleland.
Addressing the final field day on the property near Eltham, Bruce told field
day visitors, Tim and Sue Hardwick-Smith are only about half way through their new
breeding programme.
He believes it will take about 11 years to reach its potential after genetic
changes are made and the Hardwick-Smiths introduced new genetics five years ago.
The base flock was Perendale, with some East Friesian Romney cross rams
used briefly. Now the ewe flock has lifted to 5000 head (the goal is 5300) from 3700
mated to Rissington Breedline Highlander and Primera sires. The Highlander and
Primera rams have been used for the past five years.
The older mixed age ewes are mated with the terminal sire and the two-tooths
and mixed age mated to the maternal sire. Half the replacement ewe hoggets are
mated and lambed.
Most male lambs are sold at weaning in December, with the rest sold by the
end of February.
Ewe lambs are weaned onto pasja and ewes shorn in January and July.
Their overall goals are to have a high performance flock of 5300 ewes, 1500
ewe hoggets with most lambs sold at weaning. They want the flock to record at least
150% lambing from the ewes and 100% from the hoggets and grow lamb carcases to
16.5kg and sell a total of 134,605kg sheepmeat.
The lambing percentage fell 1% short of their objective of 140% from 5000
ewes last year. In the ewe hoggets the Hardwick-Smiths had hoped to lamb 94% from
1750 and they recorded 65% from half of them, down from 70% the previous year.
The ewe hoggets mated weighed an average of 40kg, but overall the flock
weighed 37kg. The target weight was a minimum of 42kg. Pneumonia was believed
to be an issue in the ewe lambs.
This year the couple were aiming for 13kg CW equivalent lambs and they
surpassed that recording carcasses of 14kg. They were looking to sell 118,833kg
sheep meat and achieved 101,943kg net of purchases. About 80% of the lambs were
sold store and the remainder finished.
For the 2006-2007 year the Hardwick-Smiths hope to record 145% lambing
from 5000 ewes and 80% lambing from 1500 ewe hoggets. They want to kill lambs
out at 14kgCW and sell 125,000kg sheep meat.
Facilitator John Stantiall says as lambing percentages increase, more lambs
will need to be sold earlier to lift ewe liveweights for mating. Lower lamb sale
weights will be a result of this.
This year most of the male lambs were sold at weaning time. In December
2200 store lambs were sold at 26kg and in February another 500 sold weighing
29.5kg.
Replacement ewe lambs were grazed on pasja to boost their weight up to
mating weight. Light ewe lambs are culled in June or July.
The mixed age ewes are mated from April 15 (63kg average and a condition
score of three plus) and the ewe lambs from April 21 (aim 48kg).
In summary Bruce Cleland says the genetics have the potential to reach the
goals set under the Monitor Farm programme.
Tim says they had two goals and that was to lift ewe numbers and sell more
lambs store rather than finish them, which he believes will be realised by the genetic
programme.
A health issue that stood out during the programme included high faecal egg
counts (FEC) early last year.
In January 2005, FEC in the ewes were 700 eggs per gram (epg), higher than
they should have been according to Weir. He says up to 600epg is expected for
September and October but it should drop down to about 100 by December.
Weir says it seemed likely that a difficult season and lack of feed kept the
ewes stressed and they maintained high outputs for longer than usual.
High counts in lambs at the same time indicated drenches were too far apart to
keep pasture contamination down. Weir says this meant there were plenty of larvae on
the pasture and after being eaten by lambs, they produce more eggs before the next
drench.
Weir says this is good from a resistance (low selection pressure) perspective
but will have limited lamb growth rates.
“The use of crops for growing lambs is one method of minimising the worm
issue immediately after weaning,” says Weir.