A LOW drone hummed across the paddocks near Nyabing as dust clouds blew out of the clover harvester exhausts.
Two tractors pulled five harvesters across what looked at a distance like an empty paddock, to suck up (vacuum cleaner style), about 800 kilograms of clover seeds per hectare.
Rachel and Trenton Browne were busy into their clover harvesting program when Farm Weekly visited them recently.
The Brownes plan to sow a portion of the seeds as a pasture phase, to improve nitrogen fixation for subsequent crops and as additional feed for their 3500 head commercial Dohne ewe flock, as part of their much bigger program of selling onto other producers.
The Browne’s clover seeding program is set to start this week, around the same time as lambing, and cover 2036 hectares.
Ms Browne said they harvested "large tonnages of Bartolo Bladder and Dalkeith subterranean clover" and were working on bulking up Tammin, seeing that as a potentially viable clover option for a mixed farming operation, although she said time would tell on that one.
This year, the family operation also intends to seed 2015ha of wheat, 2034ha of barley and 1887ha of canola – as well as Bartolo, lupins, oats and the clover.
In 2013 the Brownes trialled the RocksGone Reefinator prototype to reclaim 45ha of laterite rock (ironstone), which was sown to a cash crop of canola in 2014.
Ms Browne said "the results were ridiculously pleasing, with 1.9 tonnes a hectare canola harvested off the rock crushed paddock compared to 1.6t/ha average over the rest of the canola program".
“It’s turned rock into arable soil to grow crops and pastures in,” Ms Browne said.
They seeded using three metre spacings with an RTK auto steer set-up, while running on tramlines at multiples of 13.4 metres.
Ms Browne said they seeded into the previous year’s furrows to minimise non-wetting soils and maximise water use.
They also have a large annual lime application, which is driven by farm profitability.
“In a good year we choose to invest in large tonnages and when things get tighter, less tonnes are purchased,” she said.
“We don’t radically chase markets, but we do closely monitor key performance areas, enterprises and strategically base our decisions around these.”
The Brownes also have undertaken large scale landcare projects since 2010 through the South West Catchment Council and more recently through Wheatbelt Natural Resource Management.
“Greening Australia is doing a 116ha project this coming season for Phascogale habitat and fodder shrubs for livestock,” Ms Browne said.
“Landcare holistically is very important to us, not just planting trees, but stubble management, groundcover retention and integrated weed management.
“It’s nothing ground-breaking but it all contributes to ongoing sustainability and profitability.
“On our farm we work for past, present and future generations.”
Ms Browne grew up on a livestock operation near Lancelin before attending boarding school, followed by Muresk, before joining the Browne family and moving to Nyabing.
She said she has always had a love for livestock and now oversees that side of the family operation.
The Brownes run Chirniminup Dohnes – a stud with 1000 breeding ewes.
They are the largest sellers of Dohne rams in WA – with about 200 rams sold annually.
When Ms Browne first arrived on the farm the family operated a Merino flock “like everybody else was doing”.
In 2003 they purchased a dozen Dohne ewes and a stud sire with the intention of breeding rams for their own use, however, things expanded quickly when in 2006 they took over the Amuri Creek Dohne stud with 360 breeding ewes and have since incorporated others into the program.
Ms Browne said her attraction to the Dohne breed was because of their “do-ability and dual-purpose nature”.
“Compared to the Merino flock we used to run, the Dohnes just do better all round,” she said.
“Their lambing percentage is higher year in, year out, we aim to sell as many wethers over the hooks as possible before spring is over, they are less selective about what they eat and maintain their condition better in the tough months.
“They do better in our environment and still produce a AAAM fleece.
“We average about 19 micron for wool and there’s also a better carcase weight on the lambs (and the ewes) compared to what we used to have 15 years ago.”
The stud has also had success in selling genetics across the State, to South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, as well as multiple exports to South America.
“Genetic exportation is a very small part of the overall business,” she said.
“To me, for any breeder to be able to sell genetics internationally, it shows they are doing okay.”
Ms Browne said she would be part of the 29 Dohne breeder´s delegation from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to Uruguay, Argentina and Chile in April – and looked forward to seeing how some of their genetics had performed in the South American flocks.
Ms Browne said the family had an overall commercial focus.
“I believe a reflection of a stud’s success is how well their clients and their commercial flock perform,” she said.
“Our stud is based mutually on measured performance of sheep in any given year, as well as over their lifetime (in the case of breeding ewes).
“We use measured traits and full pedigree of sheep to produce industry standard ASBVs, in conjunction with visual assessment, to produce a unit that a client can be confident in purchasing.”
Whatever the focus, Ms Browne said, with a full cropping and livestock program there were challenges.
“Trying to find a balance between sheep and cropping enterprises where they are complimentary, like weed management and biomass reduction and sometimes antagonistic, like needing to spray the paddock the ewes are lambing in, that can be a challenge,” she said.
“There’s also challenges with finding and retaining good labour and increasing red tape and compliance.”
Ms Browne said after some encouragement from another breeder – as well as “a few successful ram sales and a gentle increase in self belief” – she decided to join the Australian Dohne Breeders Association national council.
“I started on the promotions committee, moving onto anomalies then into the technical stream,” she said.
“Currently I am the vice president and in my second year in that role.”
Ms Browne said she had “discovered a much greater appreciation of the work involved in being part of the council as opposed to just being a stud breeder”.
Her aim on the council is to “drive the breed to meet the Dohne aim, which is to maximise returns to commercial producers through the optimum balance of meat and wool production in a sustainable and profitable system”.
“I see a big future for the Dohne across different production systems, whether that is as a self replacing Dohne flock, maternal ewe for terminal lamb production or as an introduction of genetics into a Merino flock,” she said.
“Testament to this success is that the Dohnes are having a positive impact in the Australian sheep flock with up to 22.1 per cent of the national sheep flock consisting of Dohne genetics (MLA Survey 2014), which is old data now, but still relevant.”
WA Dohne breeders saw their best year yet in 2017 with some milestones achieved.
The highest number of rams over the past 10 years, were sold (894) at public auction and the highest average of $1362 was paid.
The breed grossed more than $1.2 million at public auctions in WA for the first time.