July 29, 2006

Reducing their sheep flock by 20% has increased livestock productivity for the Matthews family on their mixed farming property near Meringur in the Victorian Mallee. It has also significantly eased their management burden and reduced their business risk.

The reduction in stocking rates, inspired by what they have learned from the Grain & Graze Program, has resulted in substantially improved lambing percentages and wool production while also enabling the Matthews to live at Koorlong, some 85km from their farm, and supplement the family income through employment.

"The lambs were keeping us in business and I'm not a fan of continuous cropping, so I wanted to see how we might guarantee sheep production. With the 700 ewes we only achieved 4.5kg of wool (23 microns) per animal and 70% lambing. They weren't great lambs either" said Robert Matthews.

"The drought forced us to halve ewe numbers, and as a result we learned we had been pushing the feedbase too hard and over-stressing the animals. That year, with half the numbers, we were lambing at 110% and got 6.5kg of wool per animal."

"The Matthews' experience suggests that with good planning sheep can be managed relatively easily for the many benefits they can provide - particularly the diversification of farm income streams and the potential reduction in risk this involves." national Grain & Graze coordinator Dr Richard Price said.

The Grain & Graze Program helps mixed farmers to increase their profitability while better managing water, soil and biodiversity. It is a joint initiative of Land & Water Australia, Meat and Livestock Australia, Australian Wool Innovation Ltd and the Grains Research and Development Corporation.

Robert and Penny Matthews operate their 3,100ha property about 100km west of Mildura with Robert's father Bill, who at 79 resides on the property and remains a part owner. The property comprises undulating hills of mostly red Mallee sands and limestone flats, and receives about 270mm average annual rainfall - although in the past 10 years the average has been closer to 250mm. About 400ha of the property is natural scrub with negligible feed value.

Robert said crop production involved predominantly cereals, particularly wheat, in a two-crop rotation. A typical rotation would be wheat, followed by either wheat or triticale (and occasionally barley), followed by pasture (medic and oats). Normally about 1300ha of the property is planted to wheat - mostly Yitpi - although the area has been increased this season as the property recovers from poor years in 2002 and 2004.

They run 550 breeding Merino ewes mated to White Suffolk rams. In the pasture phase Robert sows about 180ha of oats for the sheep to graze. Lambing takes place in April, which is the best time for marketing them but also when there is the least amount of feed available.

"It's made sense to sell them young and have them spend as little time on the farm as possible," Robert said.

"We previously had about 700 ewes. We didn't really have a program in place for the sheep, despite them being quite valuable to us in a business sense." The sheep were indeed valuable during the last four years, in which the farm experienced two very bad cropping seasons.

From there, the Matthews haven't looked back and lambing rates and wool production have been maintained. Robert has spent a lot of time upgrading the farm's sheep-handling infrastructure to further ease the management burden.

"With less sheep, we have more flexibility to move them around - we always have a paddock up our sleeve and grazed paddocks have time to recover," Robert said. "It means that we don't have to be there all the time and can continue to live away from the farm and earn additional income for the family.

"We're planning to make more upgrades to our sheep-handling equipment so that we can reduce labour. Sheep are generally labour-intensive, but labour is becoming increasingly unavailable."

The success of recent changes on the farm, and Robert's involvement with the Grain & Graze Program and Mallee Sustainable Farming Inc, has prompted him to consider more management changes such as feedlotting.

"We're asking the farm to support ewes, produce lambs and wool, and grow lambs - and there are no guarantees the lambs will grow at that time of the year if we don't get a break," Robert said.

"However feedlots guarantee growth. We're now thinking about taking the last thing - growing lambs - out of the system. If we take them off at 35kg and feedlot them, we might be able to bring the ewe numbers up a little."

"The Grain & Graze program has really made me think carefully about it, and take a whole-farm approach to these decisions," Robert said.

For more information about the National Grain & Graze Program, contact Zubair Shahzad, Mallee Regional Coordinator on 03 50 219 103; Dr Richard Price, National Coordinator, on 02 6295 6300, mobile 0409 624 297; Gillian Stewart on 02 6263 6042; Lynne Sealie on 02 6263 6021, or visit www.grainandgraze.com.au

Grain & Graze Regional Coordinators

Northern Agricultural Region - Philip Barrett-Lennard - 08 94750753
Avon Region - Linda Leonard - 08 9690 2191
Border Rivers Region - Rachel Charles - 07 4671 7900
Central West/Lachlan Region - Jodie Dean - 02 6895 1015
Corangamite/Glenelg-Hopkins Region - Cam Nicholson - 03 5258 3860
Eyre Peninsula Region - Alison Frischke - 08 8680 6223
Mallee Region - Zubair Shahzad - 03 50 219 103
Murrumbidgee Region - Katrina Sait - 02 6924 4633
Maranoa/Balonne Region - Stephen Ginns - 07 4620 8122