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The Muster- Graham Butcher: Lambing Dates · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the muster graham butcher farm consultant joins
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: us once again graham good afternoon there's blue sky.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: It's amazing isn't it i've got my jacket off blue
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: sky um we need 70 days of.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: This Right, now, it's the age-old question. Lambing dates, what
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: do you do? How do you view things? I mean,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: this is their third spring where it's been frustrating. A
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: few people contemplating going earlier, a few people contemplating going later.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: What's the formula around this?
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  Speaker 2: What's the formula? Every farm's going to be different to
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: what they decide to do, but there was some... I've
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: talked about this woodlands lambing date probably five or six
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: times over over the past quite a few years. And
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: I think it's quite an interesting one. So just to
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: reiterate what that was about, they chose six lambing dates
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: down at Woodlands. This is 1981 and 1982. So going
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: back a few way, 6th of September, 27th of September
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: and the 6th of October. And they set the whole
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: trial up where they looked at the performance of those
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: sheep lambing and those separate dates, evening everything out so
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: there was no confounding factors and what have you. And
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  Speaker 2: the guts of what they found was that at weaning
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: time on the 5th of January, when everything was weaned,
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: there was no significant difference in lamb weights. The later
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: they used lamb, the heavier they were at weaning as well,
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: up to six kilos heavier for the month later lambing.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: And that all simply came about, they were lambing onto
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: better pasture covers and lambing closer to the date when
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: the feed took off and ewes were fed the way
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: they should be fed. So it's quite an instructive study,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: and to me that tells me that we've got to
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: stop thinking about having to lamb early to get decent
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: lambs at weaning. It was quite a long time ago
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: that that trial was done. I mean, they were set
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: stocking at 20 ewes to the hectare, and they were
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: talking about quite long light ewes and quite light weaning
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: weights but the trends and impacts could probably relate to
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: the conditions we have now so when you look at
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: the way the animals are being fed I'll just find
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: the appropriate bit of paper here the ewes that were
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  Speaker 2: lambed on the 6th of September had intakes of between
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: 1.4 and about 1.5 kilograms of dry matter which is
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: way below where a lactating ewe needs to be The
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: ones that lamb 6th of October, we're getting up to
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: 3.3 to 3.4, which is about where they need to be.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: So lactation got off to a good start. When lambs
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: started eating grass, it was all there. It was quality stuff.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Come 5th of January, weaning time, the ones that lamb later,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: the ewes that lamb waited were up to six kilos
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: heavier and the lambs are about the same. So we
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: need to stop thinking about early lambing to get decent lambs. Now,
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: a couple of things happening there. I think we do
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: need to consider lambing dates, but we also need to
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: consider the conditions that you're creating on your farm when
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: you do start to lamb. If we can lamb early, mid-September,
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: and feed our ewes three to three and a half
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: k's of drying batter, everything takes off, that's great. You're
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: going to have better lambs at weaning around January time.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: Feed dependent, yeah. Yeah, it's feed dependent. So if you've
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: tried your damnedest and you can't get decent covers and
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: decent intakes to you use when you lamb. It's the
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: first six weeks about the critical point of lambing. That's
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: the point where I think you need to consider your
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: lambing dates.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Now, people, OK, let's put this into context. Farmers, a
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: lot of them as well, they've got three lambing dates.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: They've got their terminals or their BMOB, which go in August.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: May mob will go in September, and towards the end
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  Speaker 1: of September into early October will be the hoggarts.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: Yes.
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  Speaker 1: That's just the way that everything's changed, I suppose.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Well, I suppose that's spreading your lambing out, but it
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: still comes back to that critical point. When you do
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: spread out, regardless of what your lambing date is, you'll
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: use being fed properly. That's the critical point. And as
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: I said just before, if you've done everything you can,
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: your crop yields are good, you're going into winter with
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: decent covers, you know what your covers are going to be,
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: you've managed your feed allocation in the winter, and you
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: still can't get decent covers, you've got to start thinking
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: about things.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: Do you know of anybody who's done that? I remember
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  Speaker 1: us talking about this before a couple of years ago,
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  Speaker 1: but moving your lambing date back into October or a
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  Speaker 1: big chunk of it, do you know of anyone who's
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  Speaker 1: done it?
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  Speaker 2: In small ways, but not major ways. I mean, you
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: talked a bit about your spread of lambing. That's sort
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: of considering that your average lambing date gets a bit later.
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  Speaker 2: But I don't think people, I can't think of anyone
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: who's made that. My main lambing is going to be
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: early October. Higher up, high country places, all that sort
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: of thing, they lamb early October. So one of the
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: things when you think about later lambing, you've also got
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: later mating. So you've got to manage your feed going
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: into the winter because you're feeding your ewes.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: But depending on the season too, the feed, you know,
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: later kill date.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: Everything's seasonal dependent. But the ovulation rate of the ewe
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: is still going to be pretty good getting into May.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: So we shouldn't need to be worried about that. So
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: as I said, if you've done everything you can to
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: have decent covers and we still can't feed our sheep properly,
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: that's the time to think, okay, should I consider going
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: a bit later? When you think about, say, even a
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: 2.5k income for ewes, once they start lactating, once they lamb,
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  Speaker 2: and that's just pretty marginal at 2.5 kilos. If you
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: set stock at 6 ewes to the hectare, you need
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: an average growth rate of 15 k's a day on
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: your grass. That's when supply equals demand. If you're stocking
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: at 8 ewes to the hectare, it's 20 k's. If
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  Speaker 2: you're stocking at 10 to the hectare, it's 25 k's. Now,
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  Speaker 2: the 20-year average of woodlands, remember this is woodlands, this
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: is good quality grass, low altitude, it's round about the
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: middle of September when we can achieve those sorts of
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: growth rates. But for the last two years, it's been
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: early October before we have achieved those growth rates. And
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: this year, we have to wait for the results to
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: come in from woodlands. Now, remember, that's woodlands too. Once
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: we start getting into perhaps lower fertility country or not
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: quite the right species or higher elevation, higher altitude, you know,
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: we're not going to match those woodlands growth rates.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: This might seem like a daft question, not so daft.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Do you know of anybody who's considered putting in a
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: lambing shed? Not for massive numbers, but somebody who works
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: on a couple of hundred ewes perhaps. No.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: That was a simple answer.
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  Speaker 1: Just because that doesn't, we can't justify the cost with
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: the New Zealand system.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: No, well, it raises a whole other few questions.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it does raise the questions too, but if you've
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: only got a couple of hundred ewes mixing things around.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I worked in lambing sheds in the UK
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: quite a few years ago, and it worked, but it
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: was hard work.
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  Speaker 1: It's intensive.
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  Speaker 2: Very intensive.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: It's mad.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: And that's on call. Yeah, that's just the way the
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: UK people do things. But the other whole question is
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: we're sort of held to ransom a bit because all
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: our sheep are short-day breeders. There's only a quite narrow
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: sort of period where we can mate you, so that
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: defines when we lamb. 20 years ago, we looked at
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: doing eight-month pattern in sheep. Yeah, 3 and 24, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And if we go to a split flock eight-month pattern,
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: I'll give you the– just to tell you what impact
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: that might have.
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  Speaker 1: But you'd have to be a sucker for punishment to
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  Speaker 1: do a 3 and 24 lambing based on the seasons
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: we're seeing at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it may be the system that we have in
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  Speaker 2: 100 years' time here in Southland. 100 years. Yeah, it's
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: the sons of the new generation of farmers now. But
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: in an eight-month pattern, we are lambing– We're mating in April,
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: normally do. Eight months later, we're mating in December, and
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: then also we're mating in August. Now, we need sheep
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: that are not short-day breeders to do that, but if
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  Speaker 2: we do a split-flock eight-month lambing, we're only lambing half
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: our ewes at any of those particular dates. Now, that
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: changes the picture absolutely, totally, completely. And we had some
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: pretty good results. We did it for a couple of
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: years on a farm. And we were getting the equivalent,
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: but we developed this indice to say, this is the
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: performance of the eight-month lambing pattern. What lambing percent do
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  Speaker 2: we need to get the equivalent performance in a single year?
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: And it was getting up to 240-odd percent lambing. And
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: we had some ewes that were performing that if it
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: was a single lambing, a 12-month lambing pattern, they'd have
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: to do 340-odd percent lambing.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Get on your grave, enjoy the sun while we've got it.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: Enjoy your eight months lambing.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Graham Butcher, advocate for lambing every eight months. Away to
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: the UK next. Julie Edwards of Shewell UK joins us.