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The Muster- Graham Butcher: Ewe Lactation Peaks · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: This is the muster on Hokanui. Graeme Butch, a farm consultant,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: joins us once again. How are you going?
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: I'm very well, and yourself?
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Makes a change having sunshine.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Oh, it makes a huge difference. You know, getting into October,
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: the weather pattern just changed. Simple as that.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Today we're talking eulactation.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: You need milk in the girls to feed those lambs
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: to get them to grow.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: So it's ewe lactation 101. When you look at the
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: lactation of ewes, two to six weeks after they lamb,
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: they peak at lactation. That's their peak lactation. So it's
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: very early on in the lactation that they actually peak.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: So they come up quite strongly to that point. Now,
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: that's between day 14 and 42, so it depends which
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: data you read. A lot of this stuff comes from
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: dairy milk breeds because it's easy to measure what happens,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: but the lactation curves will be similar anyway. So once
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: they hit that peak, there's a steady decline regardless of
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: how you feed them. Now, that's quite an important sort
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: of thing to think about, and it declines by about
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: 30 grams of milk a day. That's about 0.3 of
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: a litre. So.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: When you look at the ewe intake, to reach that
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: peak that they need to get to, it's two and
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: a half kilos of dry matter for single ewes and
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: about three kilos for twin ewes, which is about all
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: they can eat. So they're going to be fully fed
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: to reach that peak. Now, as I said, the really
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: interesting thing is once they hit that peak, regardless of
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: how you feed them, it declines. If they get underfed
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: in the early part of lactation, you don't reach that peak.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: It blunts it, takes the edge off it. and then
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: it starts to decline.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Well, you've pretty much summed up the Southland Spring there.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Pretty much. So really, the measures from that, unless you've
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: nailed your peak lactation by tailing time, you're probably not
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: going to, so that's going to have an impact on
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: your weaning weights. The ewes are still going to produce milk,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: but not nearly enough to keep twin lambs going. The
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: single lambs, because they're getting all the milk off their mum,
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: they actually don't affect it so badly. It's the multiples
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: that are, more badly affected so the whole issue about
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: reaching that peak lactation is the condition of the ewe
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: when she lambs all the things we've been talking about
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: for donkey's years condition of the ewes when she lambs
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: when you lamb and the pasture cover when you're lambing
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: so if a ewe lambs in pretty good condition she'll
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: buffer that lack of feed intake but not for long
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: so a ewe in good condition is a better position
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: to be in than one that's a bit skinny um
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Quite an important issue. If we can avoid losing live
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: weight on our ewes up to weaning, that has quite
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: a big impact on things because after weaning, when a
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: ewe loses a kilogram of body weight, she generates about
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: 65 megajoules of ME of energy. Well, sorry, 17. Take
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: that back, which is not a lot. To put that
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: kilogram of live weight back on, she needs to eat
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: about 65 kgs kgs, megajoules of metabolisable energy. So there's
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: a big difference from the energy cost of putting on
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: a kilogram to what energy you get out of it
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: when you mobilise it.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: So how do you cover that shortfall when you've got
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: a feed deficit like we've had then?
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: Well, how do you cover the shortfall? Prioritising the twins,
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: maybe a bit of nitrogen early on if you're expecting
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: something to happen, feeding baleage, feeding anything to make up
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: that deficit. That's all you can do. The other key
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: thing is what we've been talking about for the last
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: couple of months now is the time you choose to
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: lamb your ewes because the later you leave it, the
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: shorter that period's going to be of the deficit. So
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: to me, that's quite an important issue. So as I said,
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: if you haven't nailed your peak lactation by tailing, you're
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: probably not going to get there because no matter how
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: much the feed comes away, how much you're putting into
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: the ewe, her lactation is still going to decline. So
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: that's quite an important sort of principle. If we look at,
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: the sort of amount of milk that sheep can produce.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: If you take dairy sheep, your average dairy sheep does
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: about 260 litres. Good dairy sheep can do up to
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: 600 to purebred East Frisians. That's their 150-day period. So
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: somewhere between, say, 300 and 600. New Zealand Romneys do
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: a little bit over 100 litres for 56 days. It's
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: not a lot. The heritability of the persistence in lactation
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: production is medium or low to medium, so it's worth,
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: there's enough there to do genetic selection on it, but
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: it's not happening, other than the fact that we're selecting
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: sheep for weaning weight. So the component of that is lactation,
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: of course. So lactation's pretty important to get right. Getting
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: that lactation right is you've got to look at your
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: whole farm management system, when you lamb, conditions at lambing,
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: condition of the ewe, all those sorts of things, and
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: it's quite a complex sort of combination of things. So,
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: you know, to hit that peak of lactation and have
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: proper intakes of the ewes fully fed, you're talking up
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: to three kilos, maybe more, in weaning weight of lambs,
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: which is quite significant.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: How have farmers got through then of what you're seeing
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: to date? Well, how are they coping with the situation?
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Oh, some farms are doing okay. A lot aren't.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Parts of Northern Southland seem to be better off than, say,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: down Southland. That's just the nature of the game.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: I think the critical ones are sort of around the Catlins,
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: Lower Southland. Western Southland, pretty wet over there. So, yeah,
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: they'll be struggling. I mean, the issue is the lambs
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: that live are going to be lighter, but the even
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: bigger issue is the lambs that died are not going
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: to be on the P & L sheet at the
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: end of the year. A deal of lambs worth nothing.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: So you've got to consider these things. You could probably
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: talk about weaning weights if feed conditions don't pick up.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: Anything less than 18 kilos in a lamb, you're probably
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: not doing it any, justice by weaning it, because the
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: ewes are probably still lactating a wee bit. So, you know,
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: between 8 and 12 weeks, if you're sure to feed,
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: you'd probably get away with it.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Do you have any idea, what's the average weaning weight,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: what's the average lamb kill weight in Southland, would you say?
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Any ideas?
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: Lamb kill weight?
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what would be the average weight? That'd be an
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: interesting one, wouldn't it?
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: Carcass weight you're talking about. Carcass weight, yeah. It'll be
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: in excess of 18, 18 and a half degrees, degrees. Kilograms.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Kilograms.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: I've been very concerned about temperature degrees recently.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that'd be interesting.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: So, you know, we won't know until this year's been gone.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's interesting. It's something to ponder.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: It is. Yes, it is. Lactation is pretty important.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Have you had anybody come up to you and say,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: like Henry Buckingham, he's been lambing for, what, he started
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: about the 4th or the 5th, now the 13th of October.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Have you been speaking to any clients or any farmers
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: who are looking at changing their lambing system based on
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: the spring?
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: I would, I think, and I would like to think
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: that a lot of farmers are questioning what they're doing.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: I mentioned this last time, I had Chris Brandolino meeting.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: He was, I asked him the question, is three or
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: four wet, cold springs in a row an indication of
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: something's happening, something's changing? And after a whole lot of
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: discussion and whatever, he said, yes, 100% it is, driven
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: by climate warming, and we won't get into who's causing
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: the climate warming, but the climate's always changed. Yeah. Since
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: Adam was a boy. So things may be changing, and
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: we've got to consider all these things. Are the lambs
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: worth what they're worth now? Yeah. We've got to take
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: things seriously. And good honour to the Buckinghams for making
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: a pretty dramatic change.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: That's pretty much it, Graeme. Thank you as always. Enjoy
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: the afternoon.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: No problem.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Graeme Butcher, farm consultant. Those milking figures coming out of
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: you is interesting too. You don't really think of it
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: in that context, I suppose, do you? Anyway, we'll carry on.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Up next, Alex and Hamish McKellum out of Biocharger listening
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: to the muster.