Lamb Finishing Workshop – Review and Planning
/Lamb finishing seems to be an ever evolving game. We explored the subject at the recent lamb finishing workshop in Omarama. It was hosted now as this is when the end result is being measured for fine wool hoggets and it is when the main decisions about winter feed and forages are made. Topics covered were:
The 2 Q’s: Feed quality and quantity.
Some calculations on requirements and feed efficiency.
Fast lamb slow lamb systems. The balance of terminal v maternal hoggets.
Forage options for the seasons
Addressing inefficiencies of disease, deficiencies and parasitism.
For me it was an attempt to address the issues of efficiently and sustainably wintering hoggets with less of a reliance on drench chemical to achieve production (without mentioning the topic of drench until the end).
Assistance from local Catalyst agronomist Cameron Lowery and Geoff Mavor was much appreciated.
Summer feeding was not controversial, although there are now brix meters being used to test lamb finishing feed for soluble sugar levels and predict lamb growth rate performance. The discussion on specialist feeds that are 13+MJME per every mouthful of kgDM are quite spectacular.
The Autumn feed for hoggets is an area of debate and change. We went deep on the challenges of grass for hoggets in this period. It is potentially where the most change is needed to navigate “the worm thing”.
Understanding the cost of maintenance feeding is an interesting subject. The standard merino hogget will average 50-70g Lwt gain per day over the 300 days (weaning Jan to slaughter in October), it will eat around 300kgDM, and at an $8 schedule will net 28c/kgDM eaten. A terminal lamb on farm for 100days will eat 150kgDM, and net 30c/kgDM eaten (at a $6 schedule). So neither system is better. The wool value can really enhance the slow lamb option. The balance of feeding them in the winter needs to be set against the requirements of optimising BCS of twinning ewes in mid to late pregnancy. Farms that have cracked the code of feeding twinning ewes better tend to have more lambs to sell at better weights, get more replacements out of fewer ewes, and are able to enhance the faster terminal lamb production option.
Lamb finishing starts for many at weaning when we switch the milk supply off. Getting this process right with well-adjusted lambs is a current focus, but with an eye on the summer -autumn-winter feed plans. It has occurred to me that this is maybe why farming is never done and why it can wear people out or make the players seem gruff, or never content. There are so many things to catch you out if you’re not paying attention. How do we make peace with that?
