Latest / The Muster on Hokonui / The Muster- Graham Butcher: Lambing Date Changes

Transcript

The Muster- Graham Butcher: Lambing Date Changes · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: But since you've been gone, I can't breathe for the
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: first time.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Welcome back.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: This is The Muster on Hokanui. I'm Andy Muir and
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: I'm joined in studio by farm consultant, Graham Butcher. How
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: are you doing?
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: I'm doing very well. A lot of talk out.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: There in the farming sector at the moment. You spoke
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: about this a couple of weeks ago. Incidentally, Henry Buckingham
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: was on just a couple of days after we had
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: our chat. He's doing an early October lambing this year,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: and this has got a lot of tongues wagging.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: It has. It's created quite a lot of interest, and
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: quite rightly so. I mean, the key issue here is,
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: is the pattern we've had for the last three years,
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: is it going to continue along this vein? That's a
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: critical issue to sort out. And I mentioned before, or
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: two weeks ago, that if the issue of later lambing
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: really revolves around how you can feed your animals and
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: what the storm events are like, if you can create
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: issues or if you can create a condition on your
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: farm early September when most of us are thinking about
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: lambing where you can provide about three kilos intake for
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: the ewes and know that you're not going to have
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: really severe storms for extended periods going through, if you
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: know you can do that, probably not a lot of
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: point in changing. But how do you know you can
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: do that? I mean, the last three years have just
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: been horrendous.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Well, that was the argument some people have put against
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: us as well, saying, I've got three mobs lambing, got
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: your terminals first, your main flock, then your hogget starting
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: roundabout now too. And they said, you're going to experience
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: a bit of crap weather some way through that pattern.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: I think even if you go considerably later, you're still
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: going to strike storms. But the thing is, and I'll
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: talk a bit about that Woodlands trial in a minute,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: The thing is, the later you go, you're going into
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: a period where you're more likely to have better feed
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: conditions and the feed deficit is going to be for
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: a shorter period. So that's the key issue. The tough
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: conditions you have are going to be shorter. You may
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: not avoid them completely, but that's the issue.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: And that's the thing, because people are sick of September.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: What did Jamie McCoy call the phrase the other day? Shit-tember.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Makes sense, too.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Well, it does. And... Thinking back 10, 12 years ago,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: there were lambings where the sun shone and it was
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: brilliant in your slippers.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Haven't seen one of those for quite a few years.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Year 2000 sticks out for me. That was a good year.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: But I mean, that's all. 26 years ago. Yeah. Well,
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: there you go.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Anyway, that's a long time ago and that's not the
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: current issue. So you want to just go back in
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: a bit more detail regarding this trial.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah. As I said, last time this trial was started
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: in the early 1980s down at Woodlands. And it's quite
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: important to think about how they set this trial up.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: And if you want a copy of the actual trial,
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: can they text or email you with their email address
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: and I can ping it on?
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they can send it through to me on the
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: muster page there. Yeah, message me.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: The sort of ewes they had back in the day
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: in the early 1980s were different from what we've got now.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: They were lighter. Buffhead Romneys.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Buffhead Romneys.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: Well, these were made, these were Romney-Cookworth cross. Right. Yeah,
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: so they're better sheep. So the lambing date was set
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: for 6th of September, 23rd of September and 6th of October.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: And that'll be when Henry Buckingham is doing his about
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: early October. So very important they set the trial up
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: to investigate the impact of the date of lambing and
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: the feed conditions appropriate to that date of lambing. So
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: they had to even up the trial sites over that month.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: So the way they did that is they hard grazed
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: it 54 days to 400K residual, which is like this
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: desktop here, 54 days before lambing. And about 10 days
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: prior to lambing, they set stock the trial area with
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: 10 ewes to the hectare. And six to nine days
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: after lambing started, they chose the ewes at random they're
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: going to put on their trial site. it avoided the
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: impact of lamb deaths. So when the trial started, the
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: lambs were viable, up and running, stocked at 10 to
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: the hectare for those three lambing dates. And the start,
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: when the trial plot started, the three different lambing dates,
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: the feed conditions were exactly the same for each group, right?
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: So the whole impact of the results of this came
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: from a later lambing date, lambing into better feed conditions,
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: they didn't look at death rates, which would have confounded
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: the whole thing anyway, which is why they chose six
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: to nine days after lambing to set the trial up
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: because that's when the deaths would have occurred. So it
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: would have been really interesting to see what the death
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: rates were. So anyway, just looking at the lamb birth
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: weights over those three lambing dates, they split it up
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: into singles and twins. So they had three lambing dates,
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: singles and twins. The lamb birth weights were actually pretty
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: good for all the lambing dates, the 6th of September one,
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: the singles were 5.5, the twins were 4.5, quite acceptable weights,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: even for the lighter ewes that they had, the lower
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: body weight ewes. 23rd of September, again, the singles were
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: 5.5 and the twins were 4.3, pretty much the same.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: And for 6th of October, again, 5.5 for singles and
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: 4.6 for twins. So, um, Not a big difference in
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: lamb birth weight, so they're all quite acceptable weights as well.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: If we look at the lamb growth rates for the
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: first six weeks, 6th of September, the singles did 208
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: grams and the twins did 135 grams. That's for the
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: early lambing date. And I'll just talk about the 6th
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: of October lamb growth rates for the first six weeks.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: The singles did 279 grams. And the twins did 215.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: So just looking at the twin one, early lambing, they
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: did 135 for the first six weeks. First six weeks
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: of the later lambing, they did 215. Pretty significant difference.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: And that showed up in the lamb weaning weights because
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: when all these three different separate groups, 6th of September,
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: 23rd of September, 6th of October, they were all weaned
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: on the 5th of January, right?
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: There was basically no significant difference in lamb weaning weights
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: for twins and singles. So those higher growth rates, better
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: feed conditions, come up with the same lamb weaning weights.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: This is from 1980, is that right?
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: This is from 1980. Do you think they need to.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Update this to 2020? It would be interesting if they
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: ran the same trial again.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Couldn't agree more. And this was done over two
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: years as well. And I was just talking to Olivia
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: out there before I came in, seeing if beef and lamb...
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: might be interested in actually running an update or even
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: a meta-analysis of information related to this issue of lambing date. Absolutely.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Because really, if you go to the Institute of Bioeconomic Research,
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: old ag research, unless it's climate-related or geo-related, you probably
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: haven't got a snowball's hell of a chance of getting
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: funding to do this sort of stuff now, which is
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: a real shame. So anyway, looking a bit further into
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: this trial, they did add a volume.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: That is such a farmer's term, utter volume.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Utter volume. Yeah. And the way they do that is
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: they just immerse the udder in a bucket of water
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: and measure the volume of water that spills out, which
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: is effectively the only way you can do it.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Of course they did.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: So the utter volume was quite interesting too. If we
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: go for, or just look at the twin mob, the
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: utter volume at week four was 799%. That's how much
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: water spilled out. For the later lambing date, the same period,
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: 6th of October, four weeks after lambing, it was 1,444.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: So really significant, in fact, in lactation. That's quite a
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: critical part. The ewe live weight gain, we talked about
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: the lamb had a higher live weight gain, but the
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: same live weights at weaning. So that's good. Ewe live
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: weight gain, For the twins in the early period, this
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: is a ewe live weight gain, for the first six weeks,
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: they lost 241 grams a day. For the late lambing twins,
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: they lost 62 grams a day. And the ones in
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: the middle, the 23rd of September, are about in the middle. Similarly,
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: the singles, for the early lambing ones, they lost 171
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: grams a day, pretty significant loss. 6th of October, singles lost,
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: gained 68 grams a day, all related to those feed
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: conditions in the first six weeks. Now, the really interesting
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: one is Table 3, the last line in Table 3,
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: looking at pasture intake. We'll just look at the twins again.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: The pasture intake for the first six weeks of lactation
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: for the twins was 1.45 kg of dry matter. For
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: the later lambing ones... 6th of October, for the first
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: six weeks of lactation, it was 3.34. And remember, these
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: trial sites were set up with exactly the same feed
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: conditions when they started. So that's very significant. 3.34 is
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: about where they should be. 1.45, only half.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: How about we call the other volume, we rename it
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: the boob factor?
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: The boob, yeah, it's a good one. That'll do. Boob factor.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: It's really good. A very important issue.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Good on you, Graeme. Interesting as always, especially considering the
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: current situation.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: And if you want the full paper, just text. you.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, message me in here to the studio. Get on
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: the Facebook page and send me a message. Good on you, Graeme.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: Okay, thanks.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: Graeme Butcher.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Out of volume.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just call that the boob factor. That sounds a
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: bit better. Up next, we're away to Canterbury to catch
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: up with Sean Malloy.