Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Gradual change boosts returns

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Tweaking and incremental change, not least of mindset, have brought a dramatic change in fortune for the Hodgen family on their sheep farm. They told Alan Williams how they boosted their lamb count by reducing ewe numbers and ensuring they have well-fed, happy sheep.
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North Canterbury farmer Mike Hodgen wasn’t sure about getting a consultant in to go over the family’s farm operation.

Now he wishes he’d done it five years earlier.

The Hodgens signed up to the Red Meat Profit Partnership (RMPP) pilot farm programme, a Primary Growth Partnership scheme, and just over a year in are seeing tangible gains in their sheep flock . . . scanning shows there will be an extra 560 lambs born this year though ewe numbers are down by 159 on last year.

It was all done by tweaking the farming strategy or implementing incremental change, as consultant Jansen Travis puts it.

It wasn’t so much Mike who signed up to RMPP but son Dan and daughter Nicky who are gradually taking over the management.

Mike and wife Jan are still busy working the farm with Mike doing most of the tractor work and “trying to hold back” from decisions, now increasingly left to Dan and Nicky.

Every comment Mike makes about the impact of the consultation process is more positive than the previous one, after being reluctant at the start, Jan says.

And there’s still two years of the pilot farm programme to go.

The new strategy is all about the ewes, that is the welfare of the 3500 or so ewe flock and 800 hoggets, and that means getting all the lambs off the property much sooner.

“Happy sheep,” as Nicky says.

That and preparing plans, setting targets and achieving them.

North Canterbury is good lamb-finishing country and that’s how the Hodgens traditionally farmed on their 536ha farm, split into three blocks.

They delivered good, strong-weighted Kelso/Romney lambs to processor Alliance over the summer and farmed profitably.

“We were good at heavyweight lambs and we always had good survivability rates,” Dan said.

Travis was brought in as consultant by Alliance technical officer and RMPP pilot farm co-ordinator Shona Frengley. He quickly identified that while the farm was producing excellent lambs, the lambing percentage was steadily dropping, even before the serious drought that affected the 2015 figures.

A focus on high lamb carcase weights was increasing the demands on summer pastures and reducing the amount of feed available to the ewes.

“I wasn’t seeing that,” Mike said.

“The ewes were light after weaning and we couldn’t bring them back up until autumn.”

Nicky said the lambs got everything.

“The ewes missed out and we didn’t even focus on the hoggets. They were just expected to perform.”

The plan, put in place for last season, started with a focus on pre-wean lamb growth rates.

The Hodgens then started getting lambs away to Alliance in late October, most of them in November and nearly all the rest in December instead of having some away in November and running supply to March.

That reduced the average carcase weight from 18kg in 2013-14 to 16.3kg last supply season, Travis said.

Instead of all going prime to the works, some of the lambs are now sold as stores.

Financially, the lamb strategy is pretty neutral, the lighter, early season weights offset by higher early prices, Dan said.

As a result, the farm had an extra 95,000kg of drymatter available to the ewes than in 2013-14.

That effectively allowed the farm to get through the drought, which continued through last summer, Jan said.

It is still very dry through the Pyramid Valley but much warmer than last winter.

As part of the new system the ewes are condition-scored by hand-feel a number of times after weaning and through the summer.

Any light ewes are separated into smaller groups for targeted feeding to bring them up to weight by tupping time. Ten years ago, lighter ewes would have been sent to the works.

About 10% of the ewes, mainly two-tooths, came in light and the feeding regime worked well, judged on the latest scanning rates.

The overall lambing rate improvement will be achieved despite about 90 of the 700 or so two-tooths being empty because of condition issues from the drought. They’ve been taken out of the flock and the remaining stock will benefit next summer from the new grazing focus, Travis said.

The Hodgens do not breed from their hoggets, with this year’s group grazing in Southland over the winter and already significantly above hogget weights last year.

The farm typically lambed in the mid-140% range before the decline in recent years. Now they have the confidence to target an ongoing 170%.

Cattle have been an important part of the farm business, usually about 100 held for trading. However, they’ve been sold off because of the drought and won’t be back until there is sufficient rain to provide the feed for them.

After some debate, the family agree the core sheep-farming programme is one of incremental change.

“It’s not a whole different system,” Mike said.

“We’re doing what we did but doing it better. We always did well in benchmarking and we produced good lambs at a low cost and these are low-cost changes.”

The pilot farm project has set out the individual farming responsibilities for the family. They work together well and the changes were giving more satisfaction, Jan said.

“One thing we’ve learned is that to get things done, you have to write them down first.”

Over the balance of the pilot farm programme, the Hodgens will also be working on pasture management including shorter-term grass to speed the grazing rotation as well as growing fodder beet for the first time. 

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