South Canterbury farming for profit newsletter

FARMING FOR PROFIT
— TOPICS & SPEAKERS —
Clover root weevil
overview
Scott Hardwick, AgResearch
Lamb and ewe nutrition
over lactation
David Stevens, AgResearch
Sheep health
Ryan Luckman, Waimate vet
OCTOBER 29 2014
SOUTH CANTERBURY
LAMBS—MAXIMISING
THEIR POTENTIAL
This was the theme for a well-supported field day at
Highfield Farm near Waihao Downs. Kevin, Edith and
James Cromie farm 712 ha and they target high lambing
percentages and lamb growth rates. The farm is mainly
rolling with most of the area cultivatable but can be
challenged by dry summers. When we visited, the pastures
were beginning to show the effect of a dry late winter and
early spring combined with a high lambing percentage.
— CONTACT—
Facilitators
Richard and Jacqui Robinson
03 693 9077
[email protected]
Extension Officer
Sarah O’Connell
027 553 1226
[email protected]
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SOUTH CANTERBURY FARMING FOR PROFIT NEWSLETTER | OCTOBER 29 2014
Clover root weevil overview
Lamb and ewe nutrition over lactation
Scott Hardwick, AgResearch (Lincoln)
David Stevens, AgResearch (Invermay)
Scott gave an overview of the current information about
the clover root weevil (CRW) as well as what to expect
from it in the future and how to minimise its impact on
pastures.
David explained that the Highfield sheep were not
disadvantaged at this time by the limited clover
content in the pasture. From August until the end of
November, green leafy actively growing grass is equal in
metabolisable energy to clover. For high growth rates,
high feed quality is crucial, practically that means no
stalk and no dead matter. Timing of weaning should be
indicated by measuring growth rates of the lambs and
this would reflect the quantity and quality of feed offered.
The first priority is to protect the clover as much as
possible while it is being challenged by the CRW. The
parasitoid Irish wasp is quickly establishing in the South
Island but will only control and limit extreme build-up of
the CRW, not wipe it out. Clover may be maintained by:
•
Reducing shading from companion grasses (easy
this year!)
•
Not grazing too hard (difficult in a drought).
•
Avoid pugging.
•
If affordable use small rates of N fertiliser to boost
the clover.
•
Maybe use Progib in the early spring.
Establishing clovers is going to become more difficult.
The CRW loves any seedling clover so it is better to have
at least 12 months between pasture crops. Practically,
this will mean at least a winter crop followed by a
summer crop before re-establishing the pasture. Red
clover and Sub clover will still be challenged but White
clover is preferred by CRW. Unfortunately all white
clovers are highly susceptible with only a small amount
of variation between cultivars. Insecticides for control of
CRW are not a good option as the beneficial insects are
more susceptible to the chemical than CRW. CRW does
not attack lucerne.
A farmer present suggested that rather than using
average growth rates of the lambs in the mob, this
decision could be more easily measured by marking and
weighing a sample of lambs and then weighing the same
ones at a later date. This system could also be used to
determine if a vitamin B12 injection was necessary.
Monitoring the lambs pre-weaning allowed for an
informed decision about the timing of weaning. If
the lambs were still growing quickly and were not in
competition with their mothers for feed, the weaning
could be delayed as generally lambs will grow fastest
when still on their mothers. This allowed the farmer to
respond to the Spring/early Summer feed situation on a
year by year basis.
The pastures at Highfield are regularly replaced and this
means that providing the ewes with high quality feed
is easier to achieve. Kevin and James replace about
70ha per year into Aberdart ryegrass/clover mix, (
with chicory and plantain added to improve summer
production and quality) or Tall Fescue/ white clover on
the hotter more exposed sites. Short rotation ryegrasses
are used in the rotation as well and this combines to
ensure that the ewes are offered a lot of quality feed
right from the start of lambing.
David Stevens addresses the crowd
Above: Clover Root
Weevil under attack from
Irish Parasitoid Wasp
Left: Typical adult CRW
feeding damage
Although the adult feeding damage looks dramatic
and in the initial invasion phase the adult challenge can
cause the plant to die, generally more harm is done by
the larvae feeding on the clover roots.
Scott commented that even though there was very little
clover still present in the Cromie’s pasture they would
still get the benefit from the build-up in the parasitoid
levels in the district, as when the clover begins to reestablish both the CRW and the wasp will already be
present on the property
At Arno Hall, David presented information about
weaning and growth strategies for Highfield and also for
dryland lamb finishing generally.
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SOUTH CANTERBURY FARMING FOR PROFIT NEWSLETTER | OCTOBER 29 2014
The key message was:
Trace elements
The lamb doesn’t care about
growing fast, only you do.
Vitamin B12 and Selenium are the major ones to be
aware of although both can be oversold. Farmers should
ensure that when they are using trace elements it is
in response to, or in anticipation of a deficiency. This
decision should be made with the assistance of a vet.
And so to maximise the chances of that happening, we
need to make management decisions that allow the
lamb to grow at it’s potential
•
Breed a lamb that can grow quickly to a good
weight.
•
Feed the ewe and lambs to allow optimum intake of
good quality feed every day from scanning onwards.
•
Get the animal health right.
60% of a lamb’s weaning weight can be predicted
through the ewe’s bodyweight and the maximum a ewe
can eat is about 4.5% of her own bodyweight (in KgDM)/
day. Ewe size is important when she is rearing twins and
to maximise intake she shouldn’t graze to lower than
1500KgDM/ha.
By feeding strategically in late pregnancy and lactation
to allow optimum growth, a farmer can earn an extra
$39.07/hd. This includes an extra 29 Kg offered over the
winter as barley and valued at $0.59/KgDM. The key is
to get all the details of good management right to be
able to bank these gains!
A copy of David’s discussion is included at the end of
this writeup.
Diseases
Clostridial diseases need to be considered and
prevention of these problems early in the lambs life is
best done by ensuring that the ewe is protected with
a vaccination programme and that the lambs get well
fed with good colostrum in the first few hours of life.
Obviously a key component of this happening is good
nutrition in late pregnancy. The clostridial disease
challenge can resurface as the colostrum protection
wanes at about 12 weeks. To enable continued
protection a vaccination programme should begin
around this time.
Bearings—what can you do?
Since the roadshow an article has been released in
the New Zealand Veterinary Journal looking at the
risk factors for bearings following a two year study on
multiple farms in the Hawkes Bay and Southland. As a
summary;
Risks:
•
Sheep health
Ewes carrying twins or triplets
•
Moderate to steep terrain (vs. flats)
•
Weight gain between the start of mating and
scanning
Ryan Luckman, Waimate vet
Protective:
Ryan began by listing the fundamental drivers to get
healthy fast growing lambs:
•
Perendales appear to have a lower incidence
•
Shearing in either the 3 months leading up to
mating, OR the second half of pregnancy lowers the
risk
Nutrition
Always number one.
Parasitism
Quite big factor too.
Trace elements
Less important than the others but can
have occasional major effects.
•
Ideally partition paddocks so that multiple bearing
ewes are on the flats for set stocking
Diseases
A much smaller problem.
•
He considers that stockmanship is a very important
factor in recognising when animals are not performing
well, although data is always quicker at showing when
growth is slowing.
Time the shearing to go before mating or late
pregnancy (but be careful around ketosis and
hypocalcaemia if leaving too late)
•
Ideally have ewes at target by scanning so weight
gain isn't required in the early mating period
Parasites
Pre-weaning tape drench to lambs—is it worth it?
Nematodirus can be a problem regionally especially
in wet springs and autumns, but this year because of
the dry conditions it is not yet showing up, farmers
should be wary if it does rain. Faecal Egg Counting is a
cheap and effective investment to determine parasite
challenge, it can be too slow to rely on sometimes as if
there is a dramatic change in pasture conditions, it can
lag the parasite challenge by three weeks.
Lambs are probably at their wormiest point at weaning,
in a 2011 Beef+LambNZ trial set up to analyse the
benefits of a pre-weaning drench (+/- a tape drench), it
found;
Recommendations:
1.
A drench 3-4 weeks pre-weaning improved weaning
weight by 1 kg.
2. Adding a tape (praziquantel) to the triple drench
did improve growth rate at weaning by 25g/day and
reduced dag score over just a straight triple drench.
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SOUTH CANTERBURY FARMING FOR PROFIT NEWSLETTER | OCTOBER 29 2014
The response to tape drenches is variable. It depends on
the age of lambs and larval contamination of the pasture
and how low they are grazing. Lambs on herb-clover
mixes or on Lucerne would probably not benefit from a
pre-weaning drench. Sheep can develop some immunity
to the effects of tape worm by six months of age, but
we still see them coming out of adult sheep.
Drench resistance can be mitigated by targeting mobs
e.g. twin lambs, mobs on shorter, older pastures and
then giving lambs an effective knock-out drench at
weaning with a triple or novel active. When planning
on doing a reduction test for drench effectiveness at
weaning, leave a mob or 100 lambs undrenched preweaning so there are worm eggs to test drenches on.
You could even see if there is a difference in weaning
weight compared with those that were drenched. There
is no substitute for a weaning off young grass and clover
paddocks, but perhaps a pre-weaning drench might tip
a few more lambs into the draft.
Ryan concluded by saying there is good information
around the weaning decision published by Beef+Lamb
New Zealand and a link to that report is included here.
www.beeflambnz.com/Documents/Farm/Lactation,%20
lamb%20growth%20and%20the%20weaning%20
decision.pdf
Strategic management decisions may include many
options that will depend on the enterprise mix and the
resources that are available on individual farms. The
following options are provided from one case study farm
that set up their system for maximum lamb growth as
the primary aim.
•
•
•
Fertiliser policy
––
get pH above 6
––
get Olsen P above 20
Pasture renewal and cropping
––
10% per annum
––
Best cultivars
––
Best endophytes
Stock policy
––
Cows for the hill (and paddocks in the spring)
––
2-year finishing cattle policy
––
Lamb finishing
These strategic management decisions are all important
in providing the appropriate platform for the profitable
optimisation of the resources. They set the platform for
high quality pastures that ensure rapid lamb growth.
These strategies are expressed through:
1.
High fertility soils mean that pastures grow rapidly
with good clover content and lots of young leaf
resulting in high quality feed
Lamb growth—the role of whole farm
strategy in pasture quality
2. High fertility soils also mean that pasture that is not
eaten will decay quickly leaving little dead material
in the pasture
Dr. David Stevens, Farm Systems, AgResearch Invermay
3. Pasture renewal means that the pastures are low in
dead material, thatch and parasite loadings, as well
as having the right endophyte
The growth rate of lambs is a key factor in farm
profitability.
How does a farmer go about maximising lamb growth?
This question needs context as just maximising lamb
growth does not ensure that maximum profit is
achieved.
Maximising lamb growth must be set against the needs
of the rest of the farm system, and it is the whole farm
system design that ensures that optimum resource use
leads to maximum profit.
We need to start with the first maxim of lamb growth
—the lamb doesn’t care about growing fast, only you
do. This means that it is your management choices that
determine the final outcome.
Management decisions occur at two important levels.
The first is strategic and the second is tactical. The third
level, day to day, is important for farm logistics, and
sometimes those things related to timing, like when to
move the lambs and get something else to clean up.
These very short term decisions are important, but much
easier to make when the strategic and tactical decisions
are right.
4. Good crops mean that pastures are not over-grazed
or damaged in winter, maximising early spring
growth
5. Stock policy means that the farm can be destocked
to maintain cover, fast growth and avoid overgrazing
6. Stock policy means that the farm is stocked up
when pasture growth is high, so maintaining feed
quality
7. 2-year beef means less pressure from the beef
finishing so more mouths can clean up pastures
and parasites. This actually means that more of the
pasture is used at each grazing, so less cleaning up
is actually required
8. Cattle grazing in spring help reduce parasite
burdens on pasture enabling good efficacy from
lamb drenching programmes
9. Always stay in the game – the policy is set and
this means that the conditions will always be close
to optimum, if the tactical decisions are made
effectively.
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SOUTH CANTERBURY FARMING FOR PROFIT NEWSLETTER | OCTOBER 29 2014
By tending to these strategic decisions then the
platform for tactical decisions is simplified.
Improving lamb growth in spring—
attention to the detail
Tactical decisions include:
By David Stevens, AgResearch Invermay
1.
Lamb weaning weight is an important variable in
determining the profitability of sheep farming. This
includes not only the average weight but also the
variability in that weight.
When to buy and sell stock to match year to year
variations in feed supply
2. Fertiliser nitrogen use to supplement pasture growth
and feed quality
3. Parasite control programmes
4. Animal health programmes
5. Use of silage/baleage in the spring to control feed
quality.
These tactical decisions tend to be easier to make
because the strategy is sound and designed to lead to
maximising pasture growth and quality.
Maximising feed quality and quantity leads to
maximising potential feed intake, and this then
maximises animal growth rates.
Once you maximise animal intake, then day to day
decisions are easier to make.
Key things to remember:
•
The lamb doesn’t care about growing fast, only you do
•
Intake is all important
•
You have to present feed that the animal wants to
eat, so that you maximise intake
•
Dead material in the base of the pasture is the
enemy
•
Try the smell test—see what the base of the pasture
smells like and if you would want to eat it
•
Nitrogen (from clover or fertiliser) makes grass grow
faster, makes dead material disappear faster and
makes pasture more palatable and so lambs want to
eat more
•
Old endophytes will prevent lambs from grazing
close to the ground, so there looks like there is
plenty of pasture, but the lamb just doesn’t want to
graze any closer to the ground. The same applies to
dead material.
In the graph above the weaning weights are 31 kg for
the dotted line and 28 kg for the solid line. Post-weaning
growth rates are the same and the lower cut-off for
drafting is 36kg in both cases. This shows how important
weaning weight is to lamb supply, and to the amount of
feed eaten by lambs in autumn.
In the graph above, the weaning weight is 31 kg in both
cases, but the dotted line represents a more variable
lamb crop than the solid line. More lambs are sold at
weaning. But the farmer finds it hard to get lambs
away mid season. The impact is not as great as a lower
weaning weight, but you do have extra lambs left in late
autumn.
Farm owner Kevin Cromie
Maximising weaning weight, while minimising the
variability in the lamb crop, helps to streamline the farm
system. Interestingly the relative returns from each of
those profiles of slaughter are very similar, and are less
than 10c/lamb different. However, the impact on winter
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SOUTH CANTERBURY FARMING FOR PROFIT NEWSLETTER | OCTOBER 29 2014
feed is significant, especially in the low weaning weight
example. The extra feed available for the ewe flock at
10 ewes/ha weaning 140%, plus 3 hoggets is equivalent
to 200 kg/ha more cover by mid-May, or 20 kg DM/ewe
extra winter feed.
How do we regularly attain a high weaning weight?
This document outlines some points to consider to help
achieve a reliable weaning weight. Each factor may not
have an influence in each season, as they interact. For
example, a high condition score in the ewe may not
translate into extra weaning weight if pasture cover is
high in early spring, and pasture growth is adequate.
However, when pasture cover is low, then we may see
the benefits of extra condition on the ewe, helping to
maintain a consistent weaning weight from year to year.
Impacts of ewe liveweight (frame-size)
•
A ewe can only eat up to 4.5% of her weight
A ewe rearing twins of triplets may not be able to eat
enough during early lactation to maximise her milk
production if she has a small frame. This will mean that
she will need more condition to buffer her lack of intake.
Larger ewes will be better able to rear good triplets.
This is demonstrated in the next table
Table of estimated Intake Requirements (kg DM) when
the pasture has an ME of 11.5 MJ (% of BW in brackets)
Weeks of
lactation
50kg
Liveweight
60kg
(at BCS 3.0)
70kg
80kg
Impacts of body condition score
Week 1
248 (5.0)
2.61 (4.4)
2.78 (4.0)
2.91 (3.6)
•
The average ewe flock BCS is 0.5 lower than
optimum at the start of lambing.
Week 3
2.87 (5.7)
3.04 (5.1)
3.22 (4.6)
3.39 (4.2)
Week 6
2.65 (5.3)
2.78 (4.6)
2.96 (4.2)
3.13 (3.9)
0.5 BCS is worth an increase in lamb weaning weight
of 3kg per lamb for twins.
Week 9
2.26 (4.5)
2.43 (4.1)
2.61 (3.7)
2.78 (3.5)
•
––
Ewe condition can influence milk production
when allowance is not enough
Pasture cover is important to maximise ewe intake,
even for single bearing ewes. Pasture quality becomes
significant in late spring, so aim to keep covers below
1800 kg DM/ha by having a strategy to close paddocks,
use them for something else, or add more stock.
3.5
3
Milk yield (kg/d)
Effects of pasture cover
2.5
2
BCS 1
1.5
BCS 2
1
BCS 3
•
BCS 4
0.5
0
19
21
23
25
27
29
Intake (MJME/d)
Facilitators
Richard and Jacqui Robinson
03 693 9077
[email protected]
31
Intake is maximised when 1500 kg DM/ha or more is
on offer for all ewes regardless of number of lambs
being reared.
Aim to ensure that cover does not get over 1800 kg DM/
ha or feed quality will decline in late spring.
Extension Officer
Sarah O’Connell
027 553 1226
[email protected]
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