Merino flock makes sense for Growdens

The pioneering Merredin family took up land in the area in the late 1890s and for the majority of that time Merinos have played a significant role in the farming operation, being simple and easy to manage.

Today Luke, who is the fifth generation of the family to be on the farm, along with wife Emma and their three children, run a Merino and cropping enterprise, with 2800 hectares set aside to a cropping program which includes wheat, barley and oats.

The remaining 1000ha is for the 5000-head Merino flock which includes 2000 breeding ewes, with the two enterprises complementing each other.

They aim to have a third of the paddocks in pasture with the remainder in crop.

Luke said running sheep was the equivalent of seeding a canola or lupin crop.

"The sheep are our rotation for our cropping program, not a cash crop," Luke said.

"At the end of the day we see sheep as more beneficial to our program than putting in a cash crop and for us the numbers add up pretty well."

The Growdens have always had a pure Merino ewe breeding flock and this year lambed down all Merino lambs for the first time in a number years.

Traditionally they have been more focused on the wool side of their Merinos, but gradually they have been making adjustments to have an equal focus on both the meat and wool sectors.

"We run a dual-purpose sheep so it is just as much about the meat as the wool," Luke said.

Prior to this year a portion of the flock was joined to Suffolk sires.

Luke said the change to a 100 per cent Merino joining came from a combination of factors.

"We used to lamb in March which was for the crossbred lambs as it meant we could get them off as suckers which is the market we were targeting," he said.

"But with the dry starts to the seasons we have been having in recent years we have continued to push our lambing back, which has made it harder and harder to meet the sucker lamb market we aim for.

"So just having all Merinos makes it much easier and it means we can lamb everything later."

The Growdens put the rams in with their ewes in late December for seven weeks and as a result they now start lambing at the end of May/beginning of June to fit around their seeding program.

"We ran into problems with the ewes lambing when we were trying to seed," Luke said.

"We found it hard to keep an eye on them and make sure everything was ticking along."

The rams have been sourced from the Barnett family's Seven Oaks South stud, Burracoppin, for the past 20 years.

In terms of pregnancy scanning, Luke said they only scanned their older ewes.

"We don't scan the maidens any more because when we used to scan them in the past we usually found 5pc were empty and the thing was we were never going to sell them - they were always going to get a second chance, so in the end it was a waste of time," he said.

The family is flexible when it comes to marketing their sheep and lambs.

"We are not really picky as to where we sell our sheep and lambs, we just try to chase the best prices possible at the time," he said.

In March the Growdens sold 550 of their wether lambs to a South Australian abattoir for $166 (on-farm), but in previous years they have sold to V&V Walsh.

Regardless of the market, Luke said they aimed to grow their lambs out to a minimum of 45 kilograms liveweight.

The older ewes are normally sold in October, but with a lack of paddock feed they sold them earlier this year.

Luke said the lack of feed prompted them to take advantage of the strong demand for sheep from the Eastern States and they sent all their older ewes in lamb to a grazier in Bathurst, New South Wales, in March, receiving $230 a head for a line of 550.

"The prices being offered were really good, so we decided to bite the bullet and get rid of the ewes earlier so we had less mouths to feed," he said.

"It rained in February and March but then it dried off so all the green feed died and we didn't want to go through another dry autumn with lots of sheep on feeders."

Normally Luke sows his own pasture paddocks but this year he opted to dry seed some barley and oats for sheep feed, in addition to any residual medic and clover pasture that had already grown.

When supplementary feeding the Growdens use lick feeders in the paddocks and trail feed once a week to ensure the sheep are getting enough feed, especially the shy feeders.

"We are moving away from trail feeding and more towards feeders, for two reasons," Luke said.

"The first is to reduce the amount of wastage as you get a fair bit when you trail feed and the second is to reduce the amount of mismothering with lambs being left behind when the ewes chase the ute."

To take the pressure off their paddocks over the summer months, the Growdens agist their sheep on a neighbour's property/stubbles, meaning they can maintain their stubbles for longer.

While feed can sometimes be an issue water is not, being on a scheme water supply and having up to 6km of pipe through the property.

The sheep side of the business has been hard work in recent years due to poor seasonal conditions, but high prices being paid for sheep was enough of an incentive for the Growdens to stay involved, particularly when it could have been so easy to go 100pc cropping.

Luke said prices needed to stay where they are for the industry to remain healthy.

"You want to see everyone make a dollar in the system, you don't want it to be like wool where it is up and down and very hard to budget not knowing what you're going to get from one year to the next," he said.

"It'll be good when the wool price comes back up because you get to shear your sheep more than once a lifetime, whereas with the meat side you can only sell what you breed once a lifetime.

When it comes to wool production, the Growdens cut on average 120 bales a year when they shear in September/October.

They are happy with the same shearing contractors they have used for the past seven to eight years.

"It makes a big difference having a good team in the shed as it makes shearing quick and hassle-free," Luke said.

On average the clip from their older sheep averages about 20-21 micron, while their hoggets are usually 18-19 microns, but that varies one to two microns, depending on the season.

When culling Luke said they were still predominantly looking at the wool productivity which was a priority when it came to selecting replacement breeders, but the focus was also on them having a good frame and size about them.

After a tough couple of years for the sheep, things are looking better this year and the Growdens are happy they have stuck with them.

"Last year was a tough year as there were no finishing rains which meant that the spring was hot and dry and we had to feed the sheep for an extended period of time," Luke said.

"This season is looking more promising and we have experienced our wettest autumn since 2016.

"Merredin has been a pretty blessed area this year.

"It's all there, this time of year it's just cold and takes a while to get going, but the ground is wet so when it does warm up we should get a pretty good spring flush."

Looking to the future, Luke would like to run his sheep in smaller mobs to help increase lambing rates and twin survival rates.

"It's hard to do because it doubles the number of mobs I have and uses more paddocks, but it is something I am working towards," he said.