AS he gets ready for seeding, Wagin farmer Clayton South said sheep had always been part of the business.
With 6500 mated adult ewes, 1100 mated ewe lambs and 1600 unmated ewe lambs, Mr South employs a cropping manager, along with another full-time employee to keep the 4900 hectares, 70 per cent cropping and 30pc sheep, farm running.
The third-generation farmer said sheep had saved the farm on many occasions.
“The sheep returns always remain fairly stable,” Mr South said.
“They will never compete with cropping in a good year, but they will never lose you as much in a bad year.
“So we’re guaranteeing a low-risk stable income off the 30pc of the farm that is considered the least profitable for cropping each year.”
Mr South said managing a mixed-farm enterprise was always challenging.
Last year when 200 millimetres of rain fell in February, he thought he had a good establishment of sheep feed.
The sheep couldn’t keep up with the green feed that followed and over a dry May and June the feed disappeared quickly, seeing the sheep struggling.
“Last year was more difficult from a sheep point of view,” Mr South said.
“We had a good sheep result and a good lambing percentage, but when the feed dropped off it was harder to feed the sheep through, especially the twinning ewes.”
The sheep lamb at the end of June and early July, which meant last year they fell right in the middle of extremely dry weather and limited feed.
Mr South said his lambs were weaned in September or October.
“We just want as many sheep gone off the place before harvest because there is no feed around,” he said.
“We would rather get the wether lambs and the cross-bred lambs off the farm, then we can look after the ewes over summer and get them back up to have more lambs the following year,” he said.
Mr South said lambing was timed so it didn’t interfere too much with the cropping.
“Sheep have to fit around the cropping side of things,” he said.
With wool and meat prices outdoing the cost of his average canola crop, Mr South said sheep were of great benefit to the farm although there was always a risk wool prices would not stay high and there was a lot of talk about the future of the live export industry.
Mr South has just employed Kelly Gorter full-time who is driving the air-seeder, as well as the chaser bin at harvest and she was also handy with sheep.
“She has done an honours in animal science, so she is going to manage all of the sheep data for us,” he said.
Mr South is collecting a lot of stock data to get better production and make more informed decisions.
“With Electronic Identification (EID) tags we collect data such as the lambs’ weight at marking and weaning and the ewe lambs’ weight at six-months-old when we are working out which ones to mate,” he said.
“This also gives us two sets of growth rates.
“We follow that through to collect a hogget fleece weight and also track pregnancy status from year to year.”
Scanning ewes for twins or singles allows them to select which ewes need more feed.
Mr South said balancing sheep work over seeding would be difficult with plans to lock the sheep away from the pastures after 11 millimetres fell early last week.
“They get squeezed around, now we will get them off the pastures because of the rain and confine feed them,” he said.
Mr Smith said having two full-time staff helped ease the workload.
This year he will be cropping 2700ha out of his arable 4100ha.
The seeding program started a little over two weeks ago with Mr South getting a jump after they received forecasted rain.
“We saw the forecast and thought we would go get some in but we have been doing sheep feed,” he said.
Already they have planted 400ha of barley, mixed with some clover and Serradella.
Mr South said he was hesitant to plant his canola because the soil was half wet and half dry.
“If we put it in it could be a bit patchy so we will go put in some lupins first, probably all of the lupins, then maybe some oats and barley,” he said.
“Then we will just keep an eye on the forecast and if there is another rain coming we will probably just do the canola just before the rain.”
The property only received 30mm in January and 15mm in February, which was below average.
Over the past four or five years Mr South has seeded an even mix of genetically modified (GM) and non-GM canola due to the price difference and weed control benefits.
“We have been using GM on targeted paddocks to try and control the weeds before they become a problem,” he said.
“The paddocks are on rotation and we are using the GM canola on those better cropping paddocks before the ryegrass numbers get too high so we can run those numbers right down.”
A usual crop rotation for Mr South is Roundup Ready canola, cereals, lupins, then another cereal.
“It’s just another break crop,” he said with ryegrass the biggest issue for the area.
The rest of the program usually includes 40pc Mace wheat, 20pc Spartacus barley and 10pc oats or hay.
Although this year it will be an even 30pc split between wheat and barley due to higher prices for feed barley and the frost tolerance is a bit higher.
“We have tried noodle wheat in the past, but for ease of management, seeding and harvest we just grow one variety of wheat, barley, oats and then the canola obviously we change around because of seed,” he said.
The wheat will be planted from May 12 right through to about June 9.
“Frost is our biggest risk, which is why we don’t go mad and finish seeding in the middle of May,” Mr South said.
“Using one variety and spreading out the seeding window to try and not have all your wheat flowering in the one week is a way to try and beat the frost.”
Mr South said they normally had a major frost event or events once every 10 years.
Despite the constant challenges he made a point of not letting farming rule his life.
Having two young sons at Dunsborough gives him a reason to have a break.
“Every fortnight I have a few days off farm and go and see them for the weekend,” he said.
Farming wasn’t what Mr South always had in mind, despite growing up in the house he now lives in.
After attending boarding school in Perth he completed a sport science degree and went to London for a few years.
“Dad had sort of had enough and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, so I came home,” he said.
“Once dad said he had enough I took it over and now I enjoy it.
“I enjoy the challenge and you are in control of your own destiny, to a certain point – sure there is the weather but there are also forecasts.”
Mr South said they were always reviewing plans and adjusting them accordingly.
“We don’t know what is going to happen, if we have more twinning ewes after scanning we will need to change some of the cropping, maybe take out 50-60 ha for them,” he said.
“We are constantly looking at our stock, looking at prices and making those decisions, but also we just try and keep things simple.”
