A group of WA farmers took part in a two week study tour of New Zealand’s sheep industry earlier this year. It provided participants with an extensive insight into the country’s sheep industry as ASHEEP executive officer EMMA GRAHAM reports.
TWENTY WA farmers spent two weeks in New Zealand learning about their sheep industry as part of ASHEEP’s (Association Sheep Husbandry Excellence, Evaluation and Production) 2017 technical tour.
The tour, organised by Farm to Farm International Tours and led by James Dixon, focussed on the country’s South Island where the group visited numerous properties and industry organisations and companies.
The trip began in Dunedin, heading south to Invercargill and then looping back north to Queenstown, Twizel, Ashburton and finishing at Christchurch.
The trip was well organised with the group learning plenty from each arranged visit and James impressed the group with his vast knowledge of agriculture in New Zealand.
We were lucky with the weather but it helped that the majority of the group hailed from Esperance and were used to winds blowing straight off the Antarctic ice caps.
Sheep were the focus of the trip but the pastures they grazed on were equally as important as a focus point for the group.
To see kale, turnips and sugar beet being used as the main winter fodder crops was something different for the group.
Although it was agreed WA farmers were ahead of their Kiwi counterparts with the use of regenerating legumes.
Another highlight was the level of public and private investment going in to the New Zealand sheep industry, something WA can aspire to.
The group visited a vast range of farms, from a traditional Merino farmer who blade shears, to another family who base most management decisions on data collected from every aspect of their business.
The rest of the farms ranged from intensive irrigated finishing properties, to mixed cropping and livestock properties, to dairy conversions, to dry-land superfine wool producers and one business that saw the need to diversify from sheep production to game hunting.
The group had a good understanding of the whole sheep supply chain by the end of the trip after visiting research facilities, a pasture plant breeding company, a robotics company, a sheep handling equipment manufacturer and an abattoir.
Everyone found the abattoir a fascinating and eye-opening experience with a visit to a robotics company another highlight.
Scott Technology builds robots that automate parts of the meat processing chains.
It was amazing to see not only what technology is available now, but what the potential is for the years to come.
Another exciting visit in the technology space was AbacusBio, a farm consultant business that combines science, technology and business management.
One of its current areas of research included using drones to measure pastures, count livestock and monitor livestock health and pests.
The staff at AbacusBio saw the future of New Zealand livestock being in the advancement of agri-technology, value-added markets, social media-based marketing and promoting the health benefits of New Zealand products.
It was pleasing to see a good level of public investment in research in the livestock industry.
An example of this was the Invermay Research Station which was one of four campuses run by AgResearch, a Crown Research Institute.
Two new campuses were being built at the time of the group’s visit.
The Invermay site conducts world leading research into sheep genetics, among other things.
Sugar beets are the latest and greatest winter fodder crop being used by many farmers – it is, however, an expensive option.
Yield potential was marketed at about 30t/ha dry matter, but some farmers were finding it only achieves 22-24 t/ha and have stuck with the traditional and cheaper swedes and turnips.
To graze these crops the farmers use intensive strip grazing.
For example one grazier would move the break fence 8-10 metres every two to four days.
Fescue and Lucerne pasture mixes were also popular.
The group visited a sheep dairy with a peak milking number of 4700 ewes and saw a mob of 900 getting milked, which took an hour.
The ideal production is two litres per head per day and just about all production goes to China as milk powder.
The group saw the evidence of the red-hot Chinese powered cows milk market in the form of large foreign-owned milk processing factories and foreign investment into dairy conversion.
As traditional grazing properties were converted to irrigated dairying operations the sheep are being pushed off the best-performing country up in to the high country with more extreme weather and poorer fodder.
Even after spending millions building a dairy, the returns on milk production compared to sheep on the good country made it well worth it.
Ovine Johnes Disease didn’t seem to be on many of the farmers’ radars.
It was a problem 10 years ago and the industry solution was to cull.
However one grower the group visited had just started to vaccinate only the Merinos against OJD, his Romneys didn’t seem to be affected.
The main health issue in New Zealand is facial eczema.
It is caused by a fungus that grows on grass, releasing toxic spores which the sheep or cow ingests causing liver damage and photosensitivity of the face.
It affects black and white face animals equally.
In the areas facial eczema is more prevalent, farmers are using genetics to introduce tolerance into their flock.
A zinc drench also prevents the problem and is used by dairy farmers as they can drench daily.
It isn’t standard practice to vaccinate against campylobacter although some producers do, the two common vaccinations are for toxoplasmosis and salmonella.
As for cost of production in New Zealand, the group was told full contract shearing cost NZ$3.60 per head.
A farmer who blade shears pays NZ$6 per head.
The family on the property who blade shear, did so due to the harsh winter conditions.
It is believed blade shearing leaves more grease on the animal and they recover an insulating layer quicker which is a key to their survival.
Merinos were their breed of choice as they “are the only breed that will survive standing in snow for three weeks and come in fat for spring.”
Most sheep in New Zealand are Romneys, with Coopworth (Border Leicester-Romney), Perendale (Romney-Cheviot) and Merinos making up the remainder of the national flock.
To combat rising capital costs another grower was in a machinery partnership with his neighbours.
Between them they employ one full time employee to run and maintain the machinery.
Every implement is charged to the grower at a different hourly rate to cover purchase price, maintenance and wages.
They try to run the partnership to break even.
Land values range from NZ$50,000 per hectare in the 750mm rainfall zone of Canterbury (12t average spring wheat yield) to NZ$20,000 per hectare in Southland, near Gore.
More rain falls in Southland compared to Canterbury however the winters are longer and weather more extreme so production is reduced.
In Gore the group saw one business model that allowed the owner of the farm to reap the rewards of having sheep in the rotation without any of the work, an attractive arrangement.
The owner of the property has a long-term lease agreement with a local grazier.
The grazier owns all the sheep and pays the same lease cost annually for all paddocks that are in the pasture phase of the rotation.
The property is in a set nine-year pasture-cereal rotation.
The property owner also owns all the plant and equipment.
This is a good arrangement for young people that don’t have the means to purchase their own farm and for land owners that don’t have the time or ability to manage a large sheep operation.
A more detailed run down of the study tour will be given at this year’s ASHEEP AGM and conference to be held at the Esperance Bay Yacht Club on June 22.
Other speakers for the day include Anthony Shepherd from Sheepmatters.
Anthony is a sheep agronomist from New South Wales whose trip over is being sponsored by Gallagher.
Attendees will also hear about MLA’s introduction of Objective Carcase Measurement to abattoirs, the latest research in legume inoculation and the current status of Ovine Johnes Disease in WA.
To register, contact Emma Graham on 0457 937 774 or eo@asheep.org.au
