THE Roberts’ family business, Lortleaze Farms at Esperance, was WAMMCO’s Producer of the Month for May, 2018.
Their winning line of 182, six-month-old lambs was processed at Katanning on May 29 and averaged 22.4 kilograms per head while 95.05 per cent of the line were in the premium category.
The lambs were finished on regenerated Serradella (Margarita) which was established after 60 millimetres of rain fell in February.
Simeon Roberts said the consignment represented one of the final dispatches of Dorper-Kojak lambs bred by the Roberts family over the past decade.
Mr Roberts said while the Dorper-Kojaks were fast growing lambs with excellent carcase traits, they had not been achieving high conception and lambing rates, – especially early in the season.
“The proportion of our Merino ewes has increased over the past three years with genetics from Cascade-based Westwood Poll Merino stud,” Mr Roberts said.
“They are a plain-bodied sheep suited to quality meat and wool production and we are looking to develop with them.”
Lortleaze Farms was the inaugural runner-up in the Merino lamb section of WAMMCO’s Producer of the Year awards for the 2016/17 year.
Mr Roberts said significant improvements in sheep husbandry over the past few years had made decision-making easier and more rewarding for sheep producers in the buoyant market conditions.
“In the past decade, we have invested considerably in new livestock technology and infrastructure, which has also lifted our management expertise and best practice,” he said.
“The adoption of summer sown or regenerated pastures is a major advance, enabling us to use summer rains to grow abundant legume fodder crops such as vetches and Serradella to complement both our livestock and cropping enterprises.”
Mr Roberts said the Esperance livestock improvement group ASHEEP, had recently secured significant funding from GRDC, MLA, AWI and the Department of Agriculture and Water to continue pasture breeding research.
This major new investment had been welcomed not only by farmers in the Esperance region but in other areas of WA that may also benefit.
“The strong focus on pasture legumes and pasture performance is vital to our 80/20pc cropping/pasture rotation,” Mr Roberts said.
“These pastures can achieve very high biomass very early and late in the season, allowing us to lamb a third of our ewes in March.
“That in turn takes more pressure off the winter lambing.”
He said one 170 hectare paddock seeded to capello vetch after 60mm of rain at Cascade, had carried 1880 ewes plus 1770 March-drop lambs during April and May until weaning.
The same paddock is carrying 400 lambing ewes.
With dry conditions since February, the Roberts family has ewe lamb replacements and early drop adult ewes (which are now dry) in confinement feedlots.
They are being fed a maintenance ration including wheat straw, lupins and a mineral supplement until the season turns around.
At this stage all other ewes are lambing without supplement on summer established vetch, medic and Serradella.
“Our last consignment of 3200 Merino and crossbred lambs is being finished in the feedlot on a ration of grain with barley straw,” Mr Roberts said.
“We have sample weighed them in at 48kg and aim to finish them at up to 60kg before delivery to WAMMCO in July.”
He said a visit to WAMMCO’s Katanning processing plant last year reaffirmed their support for the co-operative.
“The intensity and standards of the WAMMCO operation are a real eye-opener and producers who have not yet done so, should make the effort to take a look,” he said.
